25. april 2024
Hvorfor? Det spørgsmål stiller millioner af Rossi-fans sig selv efter årets næstsidste MotoGP, som søndag blev kørt Sepang-banen i Malaysia. Dani Pedrosa erobrede sin anden 2015-sejr i løbet, men spanierens eminente kørsel blev fuldstændig overskygget af en indædt nervekrig mellem Marc Marquez og Valentino Rossi, som på syvende omgang kulminerede med Honda-kørerens styrt foranlediget af Rossi.
Allerede ved torsdagens pressemøde chokerede The Doctor alt og alle, da han beskyldte Marquez for at have hjulpet Rossi-rivalen Jorge Lorenzo i VM-kampen ved sidste weekends højdramatiske løb på Phillip Island. Et løb, som Marquez dog vandt foran Lorenzo efter en fænomenal opkørsel på sidste omgang. Efter Rossis mening legede Marquez, der på et tidspunkt var nede på 4.-pladsen, reelt kispus med Rossi & co. i stedet for at køre sit eget løb. Den kontroversielle udtalelse underbyggede Rossi overfor italiensk presse med et print af omgangstiderne fra Australien.
I forvejen var luften tyk af spænding inden løbet på Sepang, for skulle det lykkes Rossi at udbygge sit forspring på 11 point til Yamaha-kollegaen Lorenzo? Pedrosa startede perfekt fra sin første pole position i år, og han blev fulgt af Marquez, Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso, Andrea Iannone og Jorge Lorenzo. Mallorcaneren kom dog forbi begge fabriks-Ducati’er i ét hug, og snart var han nummer to efter en urørlig Pedrosa.
Rossi og Marquez sloges hårdt om 3.-pladsen til stor irritation for Rossi, der frustreret så Lorenzo forsvinde i det fjerne. De byttede plads fra sving til sving i en kamp, der slog rytmen i stykker, og på syvende omgang trak Rossi først op på indersiden af Marquez og derefter udefter, så Honda-køreren slap op for asfalt. Marquez styrtede – angiveligt fordi Rossi havde sparket ud efter hans styr og bremsegreb. Se klippet her og døm selv.
Efter løbet blev Rossi tildelt 3 strafpoint, hvilket betyder at han skal starte finaleløbet på Valencia-banen om 14 dage fra bageste plads. Til gengæld fik han lov at beholde sine 16 point for 3.-pladsen, og det fandt Lorenzo dybt uretfærdigt. #99 overhalede i øvrigt angiveligt for gult flag på anden omgang, da Loris Baz var styrtet.
Tilbage sidder fans af Rossi, Marquez og Lorenzo med en bunke spørgsmål. Hvem er den største synder i konflikten? Er det forståeligt, at Rossi tændte af? Kørte Marques reelt så hurtigt han kunne? Fik Rossi en mildere straf takket være sin berømmelse?
Her er kamphanernes egen udlægning af det skete:
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team: DNF
“We were having a good race up until the incident. At the beginning I made a mistake, but then I regained confidence. Valentino overtook me, I followed him for half a lap, and I saw that I could go faster than him, so I tried to overtake him back. We started a fight between us and I always passed without making any contact with him. At Turn 14 he passed me on the inside, I sat the bike up, he kept going straight ahead and I saw him looking at me. I didn’t know what to do. Then he kicked out at me, knocking my brake lever, and I crashed. I will leave the sanction in the hands of Race Direction. All I know is that I scored zero points and ended up in the gravel, but thankfully I’m fine. Both what Valentino said to Race Direction and what he did on the track has made me disappointed. I’ve never seen anything like it: a rider kicking another rider. It might be down to nerves, but I want to try to forget about all this and the important thing is that I’m fine physically. I hope, for the sake of the sport that this ends here.”
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Racing Team: 3.-plads
“Marquez knows it wasn’t red mist that caused the incident. It’s very clear from the helicopter footage that I didn’t want to make him crash, I just wanted to make him lose time, go outside of the line and slow down, because he was playing his dirty game, even worse than in Australia. When I went wide and slowed down to nearly a stop, I looked at him as if to say ‘what are you doing?’. After that we touched. He touched with his right underarm on my leg and my foot slipped off the foot peg. If you look at the image from the helicopter it’s clear that when my foot slipped of the foot peg, Marquez had already crashed. I didn’t want to kick him, especially because, if you give a kick to a MotoGP bike, it won’t crash, it’s very heavy. For me the sanction is not fair, because Marquez won his fight. His program is OK because he is making me lose the championship. The sanction is not good, especially for me, because I didn’t purposefully want to make him crash, I just reacted to his behaviour, but I didn’t kick him. You can’t say anything in the press conference, maybe it changes something, but to me this was not fair, because I just want to fight for the championship with Jorge and let the better man win, but like this that’s not happening. Like I said, I didn’t want to make Marquez crash, but I had to do something because at that moment Jorge was already gone. The championship is not over yet, but this sanction cut me off by the legs and made Marquez win.”
Resultat 17. afdeling af MoroGP-VM, Sepang
1 Dani Pedrosa 40’37.691 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Jorge Lorenzo 3.612 ESP YAMAHA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
3 Valentino Rossi 13.724 ITA YAMAHA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
4 Bradley Smith 23.995 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
5 Cal Crutchlow 28.721 GBR HONDA CWM LCR Honda
6 Danilo Petrucci 36.372 ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
7 Aleix Espargaro 39.290 ESP SUZUKI Team Suzuki MotoGP
8 Maverick Vinales 39.436 ESP SUZUKI Team Suzuki MotoGP
9 Pol Espargaro 42.462 ESP YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
10 Stefan Bradl 44.601 GER FORWARD YAMAHA Forward Racing
11 Scott Redding 47.690 GBR HONDA Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS
12 Yonny Hernandez 52.112 COL DUCATI Pramac Racing
13 Hector Barbera 52.360 ESP AVINTIA Avintia Racing
14 Toni Elias 53.619 SPA FORWARD YAMAHA Forward Racing
15 Alvaro Bautista 53.631 ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
16 Nicky Hayden 1’01.431 USA HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
17 Jack Miller 1’02.828 AUS HONDA CWM LCR Honda
18 Mike De Meglio 1’05.075 FRA AVINTIA Avintia Racing
19 Eugene Laverty 1’09.877 HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
20 Anthony West 1’24.749 AUS HONDA AB Motoracing
21 Andrea Dovizioso DNF ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
22 Marc Marquez DNF ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
23 Loris Baz DNF FORWARD YAMAHA Forward Racing
24 Andrea Iannone DNF ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
VM-stilling efter 17 af 18 afdelinger
1 Valentino Rossi 312 pts ITA YAMAHA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
2 Jorge Lorenzo 305 pts ESP YAMAHA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
3 Marc Marquez 222 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Dani Pedrosa 190 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
5 Andrea Iannone 188 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
6 Bradley Smith 171 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
7 Andrea Dovizioso 153 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
8 Cal Crutchlow 118 pts GBR HONDA CWM LCR Honda
9 Danilo Petrucci 107 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
10 Pol Espargaro 103 pts ESP YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
11 Aleix Espargaro 97 pts ESP SUZUKI Team Suzuki MotoGP
12 Maverick Vinales 92 pts ESP SUZUKI Team Suzuki MotoGP
13 Scott Redding 83 pts GBR HONDA Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS
14 Yonny Hernandez 53 pts COL DUCATI Pramac Racing
15 Hector Barbera 33 pts ESP AVINTIA Avintia Racing
16 Alvaro Bautista 29 pts ESP APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
17 Loris Baz 28 pts FORWARD YAMAHA Forward Racing
18 Jack Miller 17 pts AUS HONDA CWM LCR Honda
19 Stefan Bradl 17 pts GER FORWARD YAMAHA Forward Racing
20 Nicky Hayden 16 pts USA HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
21 Eugene Laverty 9 pts HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
22 Katsuyuki Nakasuga 8 pts JPN YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing Team
23 Mike De Meglio 8 pts FRA AVINTIA Avintia Racing
24 Michele Pirro 8 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
25 Hiroshi Aoyama 5 pts JPN HONDA Repsol Honda Team
26 Takumi Takahashi 4 pts JPN HONDA Team HRC with NISSIN
27 Alex de Angelis 2 pts ART Octo IodaRacing Team
28 Toni Elias 2 pts SPA FORWARD YAMAHA Forward Racing
29 Anthony West 0 pts AUS HONDA AB Motoracing
30 Michael Laverty 0 pts APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
31 Marco Melandri 0 pts APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
32 Kousuke Akiyoshi 0 pts JPN HONDA AB Motoracing
33 Karel Abraham 0 pts CZE HONDA AB Motoracing
34 Claudio Corti 0 pts ITA FORWARD YAMAHA Forward Racing
