MotoGP Austin: Race Director explains Valentino Rossi penalty
MotoGP Raceꦆ Director Mike Webb has explain🗹ed why Valentino Rossi was given a 0.3s penalty in Sunday's Austin race.
A lunge from behind by Johann Zarco caused Ross♚i to straight-line one of the S-curves. The Italian re-joined still in third place, but with a slightly bigger advantage over Zarco and closer to Marc Marquez ahead of him.
Crucially, once back on track, Rossi did not back off and give up the ti🌺me gained.
MotoGP Race Director Mike Webb said: "You can't gainﷺ an advantage by leaving the track. There was clearly an advantage because he got closer to Marquez. So we negated that advantage.
"But on the other side, [Rossi] left the track involuntarily. Meaning he was forced ofꦰf by another rider. If somebody went off deliberately and gained an advantage, the penalty would normally be much more than the time they gained.
"In t🧜his case, it was clearly not his fault for going off track. But he also has an obligation🅘 to not gain an advantage out of that circumstance.
-- mahbx.com MotoGP (@crash_motogp) "Because it was clear to everyone, including Rossi, that he had gained on Marc the correct behavior is to then give that advantage back: Close the throttle and return to the same distance [behind Marquez] he was in before the incident and nothing would have happened."Later in the🐻 race, Lorenzo was forced off in more-or-less the s𒐪ame place. He did not gain an advantage, so nothing happened.
"To be fair 𝓰to all the riders, having seen an advantage gained - for whatever❀ reason - we have to take away that advantage. The normal penalty is for the rider to go back one place. For us that was out of the question because [Rossi] was forced off track.
"𒊎So all we wanted⛄ was to make sure the time advantage he gained was given back."
The penalty, to be applied at the end of the race, would only have been significant if Rossi was less than 0.3s ahead of another competitor as he crossed the fi𝔍nish line.
Ultimately, Rossi claimed secon🥃d place by a margin of over two-seconds from Dani Pedrosa.
"[A𓆉 0.3s penalty sounds] ridiculous but the reason it took a while to give the penalty was because I was waiting for confirmation from Time Keeping of the difference in his sector time. That was the basis of the 0.3s penalty. He could have done that himself by closing the gas, he didn't, so we did it for him."
After the race, Rossi said of his penlaty "0.3 is OK. Foܫr me the problem is not Race Direction, the 🃏problem is Zarco."
The 38-year-o🌞ld now leads the world ch♉ampionship by six points after team-mate Maverick Vinales fell early in the race, which was won by Marc Marquez. Zarco finished fifth.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki 𝔍exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
