Oh, Doctor!

debeli

I am one of a broad age group who have been serially astonished at the skill, guts and superhuman willpower of Valentino Rossi over a number of years.

As one who grew up thinking that nobody would upSheene Barry or upLawson Eddie or upFreddie Fast Freddie, I have been entertained almost to the point of incredulity by this strange creature Fumirossi.

Along the way there were other greats - Capirossi, Biagi, Doohan and several others... but this one was different.

But on Sunday.... On Sunday.... he did a naughty.

I do not hold with the notion that heroes should only be heroic. We knew from shenanigans with Biaggi, Gibernau, Stoner and others that Valentinik could cut up rough - and indeed it is motorsport, not knitting - as he once famously said.

But this (I only saw it last night) did look a bit naughty. I do think young Marquez (another great in the making) was taunting him and I do think Rossi gave fair warning... but he did shove him wide and he did 'off' him.

I have nothing emotionally invested in this championship and I think that both Lorenzo and Rossi would be worthy winners.... But Valentino.... What were you thinking?

The best alalogy I can make is to Zidane's headbutt on Materazzi. Public, obvious, clear and unequivocal... but ultimately not a good way to improve his chances of winning the title.

The riding until the nerf was almost beyond belief.... but Valentino was naughty.

veronese68

My first thoughts were mostly of amazement. But, having read and seen a lot about it I don't believe he deliberately knocked him off. He clearly ran him wide, but I don't believe he meant to knock him off. It looks like as he was running him wide Marquez leant on him. Rossi reacted to this by pushing his knee out. The knee hooked his front brake which caused him to come off. Even at that level you cannot deliberately knee another riders brake lever to make them come off. As has been said kicking a bike of that weight moving at speed will have no effect, you cannot kick a rider off. Marquez was definitely interfering with Rossi's race and there is an unwritten rule that you do not interfere with the race for the championship. Even race direction agree that Marquez was out of order although he didn't break a written rule.
At the end of the day Rossi was wrong to react. But it was inevitable that one or both would come off the way they were riding. It's a real shame the championship has come down to this.

mamba80

Marquez drops back, interfers with the championship title by deliberately impeding Rossi and then moans when he gets knocked off!
Marquez also could easily have backed off and avoided the crash, he didnt.

Marquez should be the one who is relegated to the back of the field, Rossi's penalty will ruin the championship title race (who ever wins) and Rossi should not ride the final round.

veronese68

Also, Marquez was guilty of worse than that when in the smaller classes.

pinno

Rossi didn't stick a leg out, he put his foot on Marquez's bike:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2DiV26-jqs

What's Rossi saying in the interview that follows the above clip VN?

(There's a clip of Marquez stuffing Rossi off the road at Laguna Seca in there)

motogull

Rossi is making a helmet of himself. I think he knows this is the last title he could ever get and the pressure is getting to him. He didn't mean Marquez to fall but Marquez was playing silly buggers.

veronese68

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19731084#p19731084]Pinno[/url] wrote:

What's Rossi saying in the interview that follows the above clip VN?

Can you link to the clip with the interview? I can only do sound from my phone when at work and I'm out tonight. The interview didn't come up in the list on my phone.

pinno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtvCSseeceU

veronese68

Most if it is English. At the beginning he says 'allora' which means 'right then'. Later when talking about his leg he says coscia, which means thigh, so he said he felt him against his thigh.

pinno

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19731829#p19731829]Veronese68[/url] wrote:

Most if it is English. At the beginning he says 'allora' which means 'right then'. Later when talking about his leg he says coscia, which means thigh, so he said he felt him against his thigh.

:roll: I posted a different clip without realising/listening to it.

mouth

If there's one rider to make a run from last on the grid and steal two places on J-lo, it'll be Rossi. I reckon some of the pack will see him coming and have a 'slow' line, inadvertently letting him past. In qualifying he can concentrate solely on set up, rather than posting a time. He then has absolutely nowt to lose, making his push.

eric_draven

I'm as gutted as most people to see this happen,but when you look back at Phillip Island the week before Marquez seemed to have no trouble finding speed on the last lap to go on to win,and then dropped back in this race,I do tend to agree with Motogull and think the pressure is starting to get to Rossi with him slightly starting to show his age physically against younger riders,but Marquez still had more than enough tarmac on the outside of him,and did not need to lean in on Rossi's bike

personally i think Rossi should of kept quiet in the pre-race press conference,and kept his cool in the race,and shown Marquez up to be the brat he seems to be

unfortunately Rossi won't win the championship this year,which will be one less for Marquez to get to equal or beat Rossi's record,which i tend to think he will

veronese68

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19731859#p19731859]Pinno[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19731829#p19731829]Veronese68[/url] wrote:

Most if it is English. At the beginning he says 'allora' which means 'right then'. Later when talking about his leg he says coscia, which means thigh, so he said he felt him against his thigh.

:roll: I posted a different clip without realising/listening to it.

I did wonder.
I agree with most of the comments above. Read an interesting article from an Italian paper, so maybe some bias. The guy was saying that he thought Rossi's comments about Philip Island were nonsense initially, but after looking at it again and reviewing the lap times he said Marquez's times were all over the place. He said it did look like he was deliberately messing with Rossi's race. Then for the last lap he pulled the pin and went faster than any other.
I doubt Rossi can win the championship now, but Valencia will certainly be interesting.

eric_draven

Looking like these two are out of love for good with each other after yesterday's shenanigans

pinno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J38jrMUGnE

mouth

It's incumbent for the racer overtaking to make sure that its safe and that there's actually room to overtake. That's bad. Did 93 get sanctioned for it?

eric_draven

Marquez took a 30 second penalty for this move,he had already done the same to one of the Esparagro brothers earlier in the race,which he had to give the place back,and that was after stalling and bump starting his bike on the start grid and riding the wrong way just before the start,and getting a ride through penalty for it,3 major mistakes in one race!,as much as i admire Marquez's ability on a bike,i think race direction should really start telling him to behave

veronese68

eric draven wrote:

i think race direction should really start telling him to behave

But he won't, the ride through didn't affect him much more than a pit lane start would have, so in his mind it's a chance worth taking. He got away with punting one bike out the way earlier in the race so he might as well try it again.
A bigger penalty would make him think twice.

lostboysaint

eric draven wrote:

Marquez took a 30 second penalty for this move,he had already done the same to one of the Esparagro brothers earlier in the race,which he had to give the place back,and that was after stalling and bump starting his bike on the start grid and riding the wrong way just before the start,and getting a ride through penalty for it,3 major mistakes in one race!,as much as i admire Marquez's ability on a bike,i think race direction should really start telling him to behave

He was given a place bump for the Espargaro incident, which in Aleix's words was much less robust that Petrucci's pass on him earlier in the same race.

The two big mistakes by race direction were to allow him to start off of the grid and then give him the ride through because:

1. The rules say that he should have started from pit lane.

2. A ride through cost him a LOT more time than starting from pit lane - which is why the red mist had enveloped him.

None of this alters the fact that his pass on Rossi was beyond robust and he was rightly punished. Shame they didn't deal with a few others (Petrucci and Zarco in particular). But then it's the same as referees in football, different rules for some than others.

Cal rode brilliantly, managed the race superbly and dealt with the ignorant media with even more aplomb. Shame no-one is focusing on a Brit leading the world title challenge.

eric_draven

lostboysaint wrote:

eric draven wrote:

Marquez took a 30 second penalty for this move,he had already done the same to one of the Esparagro brothers earlier in the race,which he had to give the place back,and that was after stalling and bump starting his bike on the start grid and riding the wrong way just before the start,and getting a ride through penalty for it,3 major mistakes in one race!,as much as i admire Marquez's ability on a bike,i think race direction should really start telling him to behave

He was given a place bump for the Espargaro incident, which in Aleix's words was much less robust that Petrucci's pass on him earlier in the same race.

The two big mistakes by race direction were to allow him to start off of the grid and then give him the ride through because:

1. The rules say that he should have started from pit lane.

2. A ride through cost him a LOT more time than starting from pit lane - which is why the red mist had enveloped him.

None of this alters the fact that his pass on Rossi was beyond robust and he was rightly punished. Shame they didn't deal with a few others (Petrucci and Zarco in particular). But then it's the same as referees in football, different rules for some than others.

Cal rode brilliantly, managed the race superbly and dealt with the ignorant media with even more aplomb. Shame no-one is focusing on a Brit leading the world title challenge.

Race direction were bad all weekend incident in Moto3 practice was not dealt with properly,basically knocking some of through retaliation was ok
https://twitter.com/btsportmotogp/statu ... 92?lang=en

I love Cal's way being straight and blunt,and really hope he retains his form for the season,and not just good for a few races like previous years

veronese68

lostboysaint wrote:

Cal rode brilliantly, managed the race superbly and dealt with the ignorant media with even more aplomb. Shame no-one is focusing on a Brit leading the world title challenge.

Very true, unfortunately I only managed to watch the highlights after the event and knew the result. Were it not for that I would have been on tenterhooks praying he didn’t bin it.