Simoncelli summoned by officials

Pedrosa suffered a broken collarbone when he fell while dicing with Simoncelli at Le Mans. The Italian was re-passing the Spaniard around the outside, and was felt by many to have turned in too aggressively, forcing Pedrosa to crash.

Simoncelli was immediately given a ride-through penalty for the incident, dropping him from second place to seventh. He later recovered to fifth.

But now a statement from MotoGP's governing body the FIM has raised the possibility of further action against Simoncelli this weekend.

"The Race Direction will call Italian rider Marco Simoncelli during the Catalunya Grand Prix this week, to further discuss the incident during the MotoGP race at the French Grand Prix in Le Mans," it said.

The Le Mans collision came amid mounting tension between Simoncelli and his rivals after several on-track incidents, both in the opening rounds of the 2011 campaign and in late 2010.

World champion Jorge Lorenzo and Honda's Andrea Dovizioso had been among the most vocal critics of what they felt was Simoncelli's over-aggressive riding style - with Lorenzo taking the Italian to task in public during a press conference at Estoril, and a group of riders complaining to the officials in France.

Immediately after the Le Mans race, Simoncelli claimed that he was only penalised for the Pedrosa incident because of the ongoing furore over his track manners.

"For me, the thing I don't like... for me this penalty is because in the last days and at the last race, everybody spoke a lot [about me]," he said.

"They penalised me, but if the same thing had happened with some other rider or without me, for me nobody would have been penalised."

Pedrosa - whose participation in this weekend's Catalunya race is yet to be confirmed as he continues to recover from his injuries - said in the aftermath that Simoncelli deserved a greater penalty.

"I leave here with a broken collarbone and he with a ride-through penalty, good for him!" said the Spaniard. "Yet again I come out worse off."

Simoncelli's close friend Valentino Rossi had previously supported the Gresini Honda rider, but suggested that Le Mans incident had been a step too far.

"For me, this time Simoncelli was [riding] too hard," Rossi said.

"He didn't leave space for Dani. Coming from the outside, maybe he was braking harder, but maybe a bit too aggressive because Dani didn't have any room to do anything."