MotoGP Austin: Race Director explains Valentino Rossi penalty
MotoGP Race Director 🥂Mike Webb has explained why Valentino Rossi was 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 advantage over Zarco and closer to Marc Marquez ahead of him.
Crucially, once back 🤡on track, Rossi did not back꧒ 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 negat🐓ed that advantage.
"But on the other side, [Rossi] left the track involuntarily. Meaning he was forced off by another rider. If somebody went off deliberately and gained an advantage, the penalty would normally be mu👍ch 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 circumsta✨nce.
-- 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 advantage, so nothing happen🦩ed.
"To be fair to all the riders, having seen an advantage gained - for whatever reason - we ha🍨ve 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.
"So all we wanted was to ma𒉰ke sure the time advantage he gained was given back."
The penalty, to be applied at the end of the race, would only have been signific𒀰ant if Rossi was less than 0.3s ahead of another competitor as he cross🦄ed the finish line.
Ultimately, Rossi claimed se🐲cond place by a margin 𒐪of over two-seconds from Dani Pedrosa.
"[A 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 o🎃f 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 me the problem is not Race Direction,ꦚ the problem is Zarco."
The 38-year-old now leads the world championship by six points after team-mate Maverick Vinales fell early in the race,൲ which was won b🃏y 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 exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury 🧜issues.
