LONDON - Alvaro Bautista will start the German MotoGP from the back of the grid as punishment for colliding with Jorge Lorenzo during Saturday's Dutch Grand Prix at Assen, race stewards announced. Bautista slid into his fellow Spaniard's Yamaha on the first corner of the first lap, causing both bikes and riders to end up in the gravel and out of the race.
International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) stewards upheld the decision following an appeal from Bautista's San Carlo Honda Gresini team, confirming that Bautista will start from last position at the Sachsenring next Sunday. Lorenzo, 25 points behind championship leader Casey Stoner, was still unhappy about the incident.
"I think it's a complete disaster," he told the official MotoGP website (www.motogp.com). The move he did was a disaster, but the decision that race direction is taking is even more sad. Every time it does not penalise riders so they can learn in the future. Starting the next race in last position is not enough to learn from."
Earlier, Stoner ran away with the Dutch TT on Saturday to go level with Yamaha's Lorenzo at the top of the MotoGP championship after the Spaniard was taken out at the first corner. Stoner's Spanish team mate Dani Pedrosa, who led for the first 10 of the 26 laps, made it a works Honda one-two finish at the Assen circuit with Italian Andrea Dovizioso third for the Tech3 Yamaha team.
Lorenzo, who had started the day 25 points clear of world champion Stoner and was favourite to win, had his bike swept from under him when Spain's Alvaro Bautista lost control of his Gresini Honda and slid into him. Both Lorenzo and Stoner now have 140 points, with the Spaniard leading on race wins going into the eighth round at Germany's Sachsenring circuit next weekend.
Stoner's win, after securing pole position on Friday following a heavy practice crash, was his first since he announced in May that he would be retiring at the end of the season. "We don't want to take back points in the championship with another rider crashing," Stoner told reporters. "It's very unfortunate for him. I think today we rode pretty well.
We had a very tough weekend, the injuries have been pretty heavy," added the Australian, who took painkillers before the race.
"I still didn't have any strength in my right leg but my shoulders and everything felt a lot better and they were able to compensate for me in the rest of the track." Lorenzo's American team mate Ben Spies was fourth with Britain's Cal Crutchlow finishing fifth after almost getting caught in the starting accident on the second Tech3 Yamaha.

Overall standings

Driver    Country/Team    Pts
Jorge Lorenzo    ESP/Yamaha    140
Casey Stoner    AUS/Honda    140
Dani Pedrosa    ESP/Honda    121
Cal Crutchlow    GBR/Yamaha    77
Andrea Dovizioso    ITA/Yamaha    76
Valentino Rossi    ITA/Ducati    61
Nicky Hayden    USA/Ducati    59
Alvaro Bautista    ESP/Honda    58
Stefan Bradl    GER/Honda    51
Ben Spies    USA/Yamaha    48
Hector Barbera    ESP/Ducati    46