Haga directs anger at Rea after crash
Added on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Haga directs anger at Rea after crash
Noriyuki Haga couldn’t hide his anger at Jonathan Rea after the Brit forced him out of race two at the Nurburgring and put a severe dent in his title aspirations.
The Ducati rider saw Ben Spies overtake him in the WSB rider’s standings with just three rounds to go after being forced off in race two by eventual winner Rea. That allowed Haga’s main title rival Spies the opportunity to come from a seven-point deficit at the start of the weekend to build an 18-point advantage as the championship heads into the closing stages.
And Haga directed his anger at the British rider following the incident but took some comfort from the fact that the crash, unlike previous accidents this year, didn’t appear to have caused any injury.
“Ben got past me after ten laps and from that point on I did all I could to push everywhere so as to stay with him,” said Haga. “I basically tried to overtake him everywhere and in some places I came close but in the end I had to settle for second. I am not so happy as I really thought I could win but Ben has a very strong bike here today.
“Then, before the second race, we made a small suspension modification and I had a better feeling with the rear as the race got underway; I think that would have been of benefit if I had reached the final stages of the race, but unfortunately, just I started to push to catch Checa, Rea came up fast on the straight and hit me.
“There was nothing I could do and I couldn’t restart the bike. I’m angry as it is the second time this has happened; I guess the only consolation is that I’m not hurt.”
