MotoGP Austin: Race Director explains Valentino Rossi penalty
MotoGP Race Direc💧t𓂃or 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. T𓂃he 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 ꦅoff 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 negated that adva😼ntage.
"But on the other side, [Rossi] left the track involuntarily. Mean💦ing he was forced off by another rider. If somebody went off deliberately and gained an advanta🎉ge, the penalty would normally be much more than the time they gained.
"In 𝓰this case, it was clearly not his fault for going off track. But he also has an obligation to not gaꦐin 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💖 same place. He did not gain an advantage, so nothing happened.
"To be fair to all the riders, having seen an advantage gained - for whatever reason - we haღve 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 w✨anted 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 ღhave been significant if Rossi was less than 0.3s ahead of another competitor as he crossed the finish line.
Ultimately, Rossi claimed second place by a margin of ove꧂r 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 sectorﷺ 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. For me𒈔 the problem is not Race Direction, the problem is Zarco."
The 38-year-old now leads the world championship by six points after team-mate Maverick Vinales fel🧸l early in the race, which was won by Marc Marquez. Zarco finishe⛦d 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.
