Vinales slams Lorenzo for causing four-bike Barcelona MotoGP crash

Lorenzo was looking as if he might secure the best result of his Honda tenure so far as he ran fourth less than two laps into the race before he lost control of his bike at Turn 10 and collected Vinales, Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi.

Vinales, who received the biggest hit of the four but walked away uninjured, felt Lorenzo did not need to make an overtaking attempt at that corner as he could have just waited until the main straight due to Yamaha's top speed deficit.

"I saw him on the inside - I tried to avoid the crash but I think one bike touched my rear tyre and I just flew," said Vinales.

"I tried to avoid the clash but it was impossible.

"Honestly, this corner is always difficult but come on, [he was] fourth in the first lap, [he could] overtake me on the straights, we are slow.

"[He] only needed to wait for four corners to overtake me. Also on the warm-up lap he overtook [on the] inside without a reason, I didn't understand.

"Also in Mugello he had some problems with [Jack] Miller on the warm-up lap.

"If you ask me, [it] looks like a rookie mistake and he is five-time world champion. Sometimes we have to think on the bike.

"Even if he is a great rider, he has a lot of talent, but come on, you can't win the race in two laps."

Vinales hopes that Lorenzo will be relegated to the back of the grid for the next round at Assen as a penalty for causing the crash.

He also stated that he felt the crash had "destroyed" Dovizioso's championship "a little bit".

"[Lorenzo should start] last on the grid, he took out four riders," said Vinales.

"If he [only] took out myself or Valentino, we are not fighting for the championship, it is a racing incident [and] not so bad.

"But he also took out Andrea, who is fighting for the championship.

"Today he destroyed my [race], Valentino's race and Dovizioso's championship a little bit because it is pretty hard to recover 25 points.

"I hope the race direction is severe as they were with me yesterday [Vinales was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Fabio Quartararo in qualifying]."

"I saw the crash in front and unfortunately I couldn't avoid Jorge's bike," he said.

"I tried to not crash but the bike came below my tyres and at the end I also crashed. I have a little bit of pain in my ankle because my foot remained between the two bikes.

"The race direction will decide about the penalty. I don't have to say nothing."