13-time 500cc grand prix winner, Randy Mamola, believes Marco Simoncelli's reputation was 🌱the main reason for the Italian being penalised for the collision with Dani Pedrosa during the French Moto🌜GP at Le Mans.

The two factory Honda riders, Simoncelli for Gresini and Pedrosa for Repsol, tangled as they fought over second place with ten of the 28 laps 🗹remaining.

Simoncelli, who had caught Pedrosa, dived ahead on the brakes, only for the Spaniard to accelerate back past along t🅰he following straight.

As the pair headed towards the Esses,😼 Pedrosa maintained his tighter inside line as they hit the brakes, while Simoncelli - on the (outside) racing line - moved marginally ahead.

The collision occurred when Simoncelli turned across Pedrosa, who clipped the back wheel 𝓀of the Italian and fel🌠l.

Estoril winner Pedrosa suffered a broken collarbone, leaving his title hopes in tatters. Simoncelli didn't fall, but was denied a♚ debut MotoGP rostrum when he was given a ride-through penalty by Race Direction.

Simoncelli insists he gave Pedrosa room and that the penalty was more a result of the previ𒅌ous complaints made about his riding than the move itself.

A ltxcn.top poll, in which almost 6,000 indivඣidual votes were cast, saw 67% of fans declare that Simoncelli's penalty had been unfair an💃d that it had simply been a racing incident.

Mamola certainly didn't absolve Simoncelli of blame, but does believe ♊that the decision to penalise the Gresini🐼 rider was not based purely on the incident itself.

"The machines that we're racing on are not toys and if you saw the Stoner/Rossi battle at Laguna Seca 2008, or Lorenzo and Rossi in Japan last year, you went 'wow, that is the fine line of hard racing'," Mamola, a regular in the MotoGP paddock, told ltxcn.top.

"There are some people who say they don't agree with t꧃hat kind of racing and others that want more of i💮t.

"What happened with Simoncelli and Pedrosa - there are so many people poi🌜nting at Simoncelli, saying that he is a hard rider and dܫoesn't give you room. Unfortunately that reputation bit him.

"If it was Valentinꦛo 😼[Rossi] that turned in and somebody hit him, I don't think they [Race Direction] would have done the same thing."

Mamola, like fellow 13-time race winners' Max Biaggi and Da🎐ni Pedrosa, is the most 🦂successful rider not to win the 500cc/MotoGP title. The American retired from grand prix racing in 1992.