Iannone: Start penalty 'harsh' after Lorenzo hit

A clash with Ducati replacement Jorge Lorenzo at turn one of Sunday's Argentina MotoGP (pictured) left Andrea Iannone down in 16th place.

But worse was to follow when he received a ride-through penalty for jumping the start.

The Italian went on to cross the finish line 16th and last, while Lorenzo was out on the spot after the earlier contact (pictured).

Iannone clearly felt the triple MotoGP champion was to blame for the incident, and that Race Direction should have taken the ground he lost into account when ruling on the jump start penalty.

"I got a ride-through penalty and my feeling is that it was too harsh," he said. "I put the bike in gear, and the decision is to penalise me. Before last year, it was not possible to move on the grid. But last year it changed and is now if you move, but not get an advantage, then Race Direction can see to penalise or not.

"In my opinion I didn't gain any advantage because I just moved a bit but then immediately stopped. And also on the first corner, I lose too much because Jorge hit me very hard, and I don't know why I didn't crash, I'm very lucky.

"Because of this, my opinion is that the Race Direction could have given another evaluation of the situation, and maybe not dictate such a penalising ride through.

"It's a shame because my pace after the penalty was good, maybe not enough for the podium, but for sure I could have fought for the top 6."

CLICK HERE to read what Lorenzo had to say.

Iannone also failed to score in last year's race, after colliding with team-mate Andrea Dovizioso at the penultimate corner.

Rookie 2017 team-mate Alex Rins was forced to withdraw from 14th place on lap 7 of 25, after a fall caused even greater pain from his recently broken ankle.

"During the race I felt pretty comfortable with the ankle, it didn't hurt too much, but I felt bad with the braking. After some laps in 15th place, I tried to overtake in the only possible corner - the entrance of corner 13, and managed to get into 14th place, but then I lost control of the front end and crashed.

"It was not a bad crash but I hit my foot and the pain increased, thus not allowing me to finish the race. Now it's time to look ahead and go to Austin. I like that circuit very much and I hope to recover a lot with some rest and physiotherapy during these days, in order to arrive in Texas in considerably better condition."