Rossi v Marquez (If you haven't seen the race, watch it first!)

[Yorke Oldfather]

MM had nothing to lose, why wouldn't he fight for position? I was surprised that Rossi didn't ride a little smarter. There were still a lot laps remaining to decide the outcome. But you could tell that Rossi was becoming frustrated and it finally got the best of him. It looked like MM was anticipating Rossi to resume racing when he tried to tip in and avoid running off track. I'm sure many of us have been in that outside line urging the guy(or gal) on the inside to finish the corner. It's a shame this will have such implications on the championship.

edit: didn't mean to leave our "gal" racers out.

I agree 100%,

[David Adams11]

Racing incident. It will be overturned on appeal.

I'm actually really glad to hear you say that.

[Tommy Hendricks]

MM was 'racing' almost 2 seconds off of his pace...

So were pretty much the entire grid of racers compared to qualifying. I have both the qualifying/race result lap times side by side for comparison.

Sad to see what happened. Both were in the wrong on this one.

Edit: provided links for comparison

http://resources.motogp.com/files/re...df?v1_98c1465d

http://resources.motogp.com/files/re...df?v1_43e00ee3

[DJRicks]

MM deserved what he got, he crashed himself. What was MM's penalty (ie suspended from racing then next race)? Sorry but that wasn't racing, that was pure waste of talent and sabotaging the championship.

[Tommy Hendricks]

Colin pretty much summed it up perfectly:

https://twitter.com/texastornado5/st...182144?lang=en

[Kasey Lewis]

It looks like mission accomplished to me. Although i doubt Marc and JL had a deal, it's obvious Marc wanted to mess up Rossi's championship run, it didn't matter who would win as long as it wasn't Rossi. The goal was to get him caught up in a battle and slow him down, and he did that perfectly. It wouldn't surprise me if Marc played a soccer move and flopped just to see if he could get a black flag or points deducted. In the end, Rossi lost his temper and let Marc win, on and off the track. The mind game with MM is strong.

[Tyler Berryhill]

It's almost like.... (PUT ON YOUR TIN HAT) fell down on purpose?

This was my thought. I doubt his intention was to crash but I felt that contact was forced so that Rossi looked bad and would be subsequently penalized.

Similar to what Lorenzo did to Marc in the last corner of Jerez in 2013. It was obvious that a bike was there but Lorenzo turned into him to make his pass look reckless so he could complain about it to race direction later.

[Robert Parten]

Rossi made a move that was unsportsman like and I disagree with the word "kick" since far too many people are getting hung up on the definition of the word. I would prefer to say "utilized his legs using an outward motion, leaving the peg, to perform an unsportsman like action leading to crash of another rider".

We're not talking about Rossi being slowed by someone he lapped, Marquez is paid to race (and also do PR, lets face it) and racing is what he did. Is he young and has he performed some "d*ck moves" which have also caused him to crash out? Absolutely, I've called it before and I've also said he'll learn. I even said, many times, this season the older riders are going to resort to mental warfare with him, because younger riders, regardless of CMRA, AMA, SBK, or MotoGP, suffer from immaturity, but that is life and is the status quo in human development.

I think they both got what they deserved, Marquez crashed out, hurt his pride and got 0 points. Rossi was penalized accordingly. I think RD made the right move to let the race continue to review the evidence, instead of black flagging him. Considering all the options RD had to make Valentino's life a complete and utter hell, which they realized he was already in with the younger riders coming in to take him out, they were more than appropriate. Valentino has been racing way too long to boil over like this, a man at 34 years old ought to have more self control, both on and off the track; however, I get his ramblings in the press was his attempt at engaging in mental warfare with the younger riders, he made the fatal mistake of taking it personal.

[Ronnie Hay]

Looked like Mark Marquez and Henry Wiles have similar riding philosophies.

[Ryan Andrews]

Rossi was faster than Marc in the race when Marc was in front of him and slower than Marc when Marc was behind him.

Marc was faster throughout the entire weekend. All of a sudden the race comes along and he can't break away from Rossi? Give me a break.

The kid made several extremely close passes and made contact at least once. Rossi wanted to run him wide and accomplished exactly that. There was PLENTY of room for Marc to run off the track, or stand the bike up and avoid Rossi. He turned in, made contact and fell down.

He KNOWS there's a championship at stake and he was riding like a complete buffoon. He should know better than to do what he was doing.