The mother of all duels
In the history of motorcycling, no season has been more controversial and discussed than that of 2015. World Championship Duel between Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossibut above all the disagreements erupted between the Doctor and Marc Marquez have marked MotoGP forever and some of the residue of that confrontation – personal even before sporting – are still visible in the top-class paddock today. Guest of the podcast My Babyhosted by his friend and colleague Andrea Migno, Rossi decided to to tell his whole truthalso revealing some still unpublished behind-the-scenes details of the infamous Sepang weekend, in particular the heated post-race, and of that entire season. There were three key episodes of that championship: the contact between the two in Argentina, the one in Assen at the last corner and then obviously the ‘final showdown’ in Malaysiafollowing Rossi’s press conference complaining about Marquez’s incorrect behaviour in Australia.
The background: Argentina and Assen
If the relationship between Marquez and Rossi significantly deteriorated after the contact at Termas de Rio Hondo, with the fall of the #93 and the victory of the champion from Tavullia, it was after Assen that the real war between the two factions broke out.[Dopo Assen] I heard that they were going around the paddock, especially Alzamora [all’epoca manager di Marquez], to say ‘ok, we don’t win it anymore [il titolo]but he doesn’t win it either’ – Rossi said – they told it to some Spanish people, but these Spanish people told it to some Spanish friends of mine who came to tell me and started telling me ‘look, be careful because you’ll see that in the last races…’. There was also Uccio who kept telling me to be careful”.
Alzamora’s ‘message’ and the post Sepang
The peak of tension is obviously represented by the post-race in Malaysia. Rossi retraced that incredible day, from the duel on the track to the confrontation in front of the stewards who then assigned Rossi the penalty for the Valencia GP: “In Malaysia he damaged me and bothered me for the whole race – Rossi recalled – and then I, in the long right-hand bend, which then tightens, went close to him, as you do on the street when you have an argument. He tried to make me fall three or four times but he didn’t catch my handlebars.. I went near him, I looked him in the face as if to tell him ‘enough, what the f*** are you doing?’. Only that after we touched. I have many doubts about that contact – continued #46 – because he never falls. Instead at that moment… I don’t know, maybe the brake got stuck in my knee. I didn’t mean to throw it down“.
The lesser known part concerns the meeting between the two drivers after the racewhen Rossi was told he would have to start last in Valencia: “Normally they should have given me a ride-through to serve in the Malaysian race.if they were convinced that I had knocked out Marquez on purpose – explained Rossi – and if it had been like that I would have finished fifth instead of third, because we still had a big advantage. Instead they didn’t let me do the ride-through and they invented that I had to leave last in Valencia. Marquez had his head down at that moment, because we had argued and there had been a whole discussion. At the moment Mike Webb [Race Director della MotoGP] he said that I should have started last in Valencia and my blood ran cold because I knew I had lost the championship. But my first reaction was to look at Marquez and Marquez looked at Alzamora and nodded his head.. He glanced at Alzamora as if to say ‘go, we did it’. Marquez is a very strong rider, a champion – concluded Rossi – and it has always been quite borderline. But in 2015 he crossed the line. There have been other dirty drivers, but always to win. No champion in the history of motorsport has ever fought to make another driver lose.“.
#Rossi #Valencia #Penalty #Marquez #Realized
