Rossi unsure if he will race in Valencia MotoGP decider
Valentino Rossi has admitted he is unsure if he will choose to participate in the MotoGP title decider at Valencia in two weeks’ time in the wake of his clash with Marc Marquez at Sepang.
Photo by: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Rossi will be forced to start from the back of the grid at Valencia as punishment for deliberately running Marquez wide at Turn 14 on the seventh lap of Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix, making contact with the Spaniard and causing him to crash.
Although he kept his third place finish, and therefore takes a seven point lead over title rival Jorge Lorenzo to the season finale, Rossi was so aggrieved with his punishment that he suggested he may boycott the Valencia race in protest.
“Maybe I won’t even start [at Valencia], I need to decide,” Rossi told the media in his post-race briefing in Malaysia. “It’s an unfair penalty because I didn’t want to make [Marquez] fall.
“I repeat myself; I’m sorry he crashed because I just wanted to annoy him.
“I have always been a fair rider; the first point on my licence I took at Misano for a small error in qualifying, even when I had not taken anything away from Lorenzo [who kept pole position despite being baulked by Rossi].”
"Marquez is a bad loser"
Elaborating on his comments that Marquez got what he wanted by effectively deciding the title in favour of Lorenzo, Rossi claimed he had received confirmation from the Honda rider’s manager Emilio Alzamora that this was exactly the case.
“As I said on Thursday, this is for what happened between us at Argentina and Assen,” said Rossi.
“I had confirmation from Alzamora; he told me that Marc thinks I made him lose the championship.
“He is surely a bad loser.”
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments