Randy de Puniet injured a finger when he fell from outside the top ten on lap six of the Italian Grand Prix, inadvertently taking an unlucky
Marco Melandri into retirement with him.
"I am very disappointed because I made a very good start, probably the best of this season, and I was in the top ten on the first lap. But I immediately felt a strange feeling in the rear and the bike started to slide and bump," revealed Randy. "I tried to keep my position but it was not possible. Then, on lap six at turn two, I overtook Vermeulen but I crashed and suffered a small injury in my left little finger. It aches a lot now but it will be OK for Barcelona."
Melandri, already enduring a nightmare home event for Ducati, was too close to the incident ahead - which he says was caused by contact between de Puniet and Vermeulen.
"de Puniet made contact with Vermeulen and crashed right in front of me. I was to the left of him so I tried to dive to the inside but there wasn't enough space. I had to go so wide so that I didn't run over Randy that I ran off track but I was going at speed and crashed," explained Marco, who had qualified in 18th position. "It was a shame because I'd made a decent start and passed a few riders, things were going better than they had in practice but now we'll never know if I could have kept it up over race distance. Will look at starting out in Barcelona with the same set-up we found for the race today."
"We're all disappointed for Marco but we cannot give up: we have to keep working together to find the technical solutions that can help him find confidence with the bike," insisted Filippo Preziosi, general director of Ducati Corse. "At Barcelona we'll work on another small step with the engine regulations and I'm sure that when Marco finally gets a good feeling with the bike we'll be able to make the most of the talent that we all know he possesses."
Vermeulen went on to finish in tenth position.
