MotoGP Austin: Race Director explains Valentino Rossi penalty
MotoGP Race Director Mike Webb has explained why Valentino Rossi wasಌ given a 0.3s penalty in Sunday's Austin race.
A lunge from behind by Johann Zarco caused Rossi to straight-line one of the S-curves. The Italian re-joined still in third place, but with a slightly bigger ad𓂃vantage over Zarco and closജer to Marc Marquez ahead of him.
Crucially, once back on tracꦏk, Rossi did not back♉ off and give up the time gained.
MotoGP Race Director Mike Webb said: "You can't gain an advantage by leaving the track. There was clearly an advantage because he got closer to Marquez. So we negatedꦜ that advantage.
"But on the other side, [Rossi] left the track involuntarily. Meaning he was forced off by another rider. If somebody went off deliberatelꦅy and gained an advantage, the penalty would꧒ normally be much more than the time they gained.
"In this 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 circumstanc🌼e.
-- ltxcn.top 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 same place. He did not gain an ꦐadvantage, so nothing happened.
"To be fair to all the riders, having seen an advantage gained - for whatever reason - we have to take away that advantage. The norma🉐l penalty is for the rider to go back one place. For us that was out of the question because [Rossi] was forced off trac🎶k.
"So all we wanted was to make sure the time advantage he gained was gi🔯ven back."
The pe🍸nalty, 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 ꦆcrossed the finish line.
Ultimately, Ross𓆉i claimed second place by a margin of over two-secondꦦs from Dani Pedrosa.
"[A 0.3s penalty sound🌸s] 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 basisꦗ 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. For m💫e the problem is not Race Direction, the problem is Zarco."
The 38-year-old now leads the world chamꦬpionship 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 ye♕ars and has seen Valentino Rossi com♔e and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
