A war of words has broken out between Yamaha and Honda since the Italian superstar was accused of kicking Marc Marquez’s bike at the Malaysian Grand Prix last month, and causing the Spaniard to crash.
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“As a outcome of this ruling, at the Gran Premi de la Comunitat Valenciana, last race of the FIM world championship grand prix, Mr Rossi will start from the last position on the grid”, it added.
But the Italian will now have to try and defend his seven-point title lead over Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo from last place, CAS stating that the sport’s governing body, the worldwide Motorcycling Federation (FIM), had followed all procedures correctly.
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“It’s up to me now”, Rossi said at Valencia today.
Rossi was given three penalty points when race officials reviewed the incident and, as a result will start from back of the grid in the championship deciding Spanish GP this weekend in Valencia.
What is, however, certain, is the fact that Rossi will begin his final battle this year with a major handicap.
Rossi is sure to face a hostile atmosphere in Valencia with the race unusually for MotoGP being declared as high risk by the authorities for fears fans of the riders could clash. Should Lorenzo win, Rossi will need to finish second to hold onto the lead and claim a tenth world title.
Pedrosa and Marquez might also be eyeing a shot at glory at the Ricardo Tormo, and at least one of them might not be that thrilled to give up a podium placement without a serious fight. Throughout the entire season the team and riders have done a great job and we are motivated to work hard this weekend to give it our all in the last race. I know what happened in Malaysia. “I will race next year because I have already a contract and during next year a lot of things will change [tyres, ECU] and maybe change also the level; after I will decide if continue or not”.
In the name of the Permanent Bureau, the FIM and the promoter, Dorna, I would like to remind you that we are the only sporting organisation in the world that draws up its regulations for one of its flagship Championships with the agreement of all parties.
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Valentino Rossi’s attempts to get a psychological advantage over Marc Marquez kicked off a furore on a scale even MotoGP had not experienced before. We would like to emphasise, that for next year, a few changes will be made to prevent this from happening again.
