'Alvaro is not a dangerous rider'
Andrea Dovizioso has jumped to the defence of Alvaro Bautista, insisting he is not a danger out on track.
Bautista was hit with a grid penalty for the next race at the Sachsenring after taking out Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo at the first corner in Saturday's Dutch TT.
The San Carlo Gresini Honda rider was quick to apologise and was adamant he did not do it on purpose, he just missed his braking point.
This is a sentiment echoed by Dovizioso, who was behind the duo when the accident took place.
"It was really close to me so I saw how late he braked. He made a big mistake," said the Yamaha Tech 3 rider.
"This can happen because you don't have your (normal marker) to understand where to brake at the start. But you still don't have to make a mistake and how big a mistake he made was too much I think.
"Alvaro is not a dangerous rider, so maybe a penalty is too much, but for sure a big warning.
"He didn't want to do it, but every rider in MotoGP, Moto2 takes a lot of risk and if you have some warning the next time you are thinking about that."
Bautista will start next Sunday's German MotoGP from the very back of the grid.
