Marco Simoncelli passed away more than a decade ago but his memory remains strong and alive among motorcycling lovers. One of them is Dani Pedrosa, who recalled a very peculiar battle with the driver at the French GP, in the fateful year of 2011, and how the Italian had a singular talent and a style very similar to Valentino Rossi.
Currently a KTM test rider, Pedrosa was present on the Por Orejas Podcast, and recalled the fight with Simoncelli, which resulted in the #26 crashing and getting his right clavicle injured, and how he experienced the situation then. Looking back, he admitted that it wasn’t the most correct action: ‘We all make mistakes, but the important thing is to learn that when we make a mistake or when we react in a certain way, we can always reflect on it and, if we have the opportunity, we can ask for forgiveness’.
However, at the time his stance was not so friendly, he was notably upset by what happened, even more so when the Race Directorate himself admonished his opponent: ‘I think I was right to be angry and not shake his hand because at that moment he was being warned by Race Management, by [Casey] Stoner, by Jorge [Lorenzo]…’.
The incident between years deserved, in fact, a comparison to a well-known face in the paddock, with Il Dottore not condemning such action in Simoncelli’s riding: ‘The only one who encouraged that style of riding was Valentino Rossi, at that time’.
