Post by Max on Oct 1, 2020 20:47:32 GMT
A sour taste was left, the sports reputation, integrity and credibility were all severely damaged that day….to many a blind eye was shockingly turned to premier class ‘match fixing’.
This was the 18th and very last race of the season and was going to be the decider of the championship, with only 2 riders left able to take the World Championship title. Valentino Rossi (Italian) had been leading for all 17 races, his only remaining title challenger was his Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo (Spanish)….they never got along!
Before the Valencia race Rossi was served a penalty from Race Direction meaning he would have to start from 26th place at the very back of the grid, now with just a 7 point lead. It is not impossible to win from the back of the grid but only once before had it happened, Marquez in Valencia funnily enough 3 years earlier.
Points breakdown in MotoGP is 1st place: 25pts; 2nd: 20; 3rd: 16; 4th: 13; 5th: 11; 6th: 10; 7th: 9; 8th: 8; 9th: 7; 10th: 6; 11th: 5; 12th: 4; 13th: 3; 14th: 2; 15th: 1. A myriad of connotations in the race could all play out to determine the title outcome. The end result was Lorenzo won and Rossi finished the race 4th.
The talking points are two elements really the first being Marc Marquez sat right behind shadowing Lorenzo from start to finish in a sloth-like manner. I have never seen him do that in a single race before or since. It was so obviously not his normal race, his body language was different, and there was not a single effort to overtake the leader. Dani Pedrosa (Spanish) always had late race pace and he did once during the space of 4 laps mid race he had closed a gap of 2.5 seconds and was right behind Marc, he lined up and overtook his Repsol (Spanish) Honda teammate….for about 5 seconds! Marc made his only aggressive move of the race at this point and overtook Dani with a block pass, to keep him at bay and halt the progress he was making. Dani looked like he wanted an honest race. The positions stayed like that to the very end, neither Honda even tried the usual last lap, last corner attempt to get past Lorenzo. It was crystal clear the Honda guys had the better race pace that day and could have finished 1 &2. Lorenzo would have been 3rd and Rossi would have been Champion.
In front of a circuit full of fans, a global TV audience of millions saying the same thing Dorna, (Spanish) never issued a single statement about the furore, even after Lorenzo shamefully went in front of the world’s media shown on TV clearly saying he believed his compatriots helped him, keeping the title with a Spanish rider! Pundits tried to dismiss his comments saying the track is notoriously difficult to overtake on… yet Rossi managed to overtake 22 times!
This was the 18th and very last race of the season and was going to be the decider of the championship, with only 2 riders left able to take the World Championship title. Valentino Rossi (Italian) had been leading for all 17 races, his only remaining title challenger was his Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo (Spanish)….they never got along!
Before the Valencia race Rossi was served a penalty from Race Direction meaning he would have to start from 26th place at the very back of the grid, now with just a 7 point lead. It is not impossible to win from the back of the grid but only once before had it happened, Marquez in Valencia funnily enough 3 years earlier.
Points breakdown in MotoGP is 1st place: 25pts; 2nd: 20; 3rd: 16; 4th: 13; 5th: 11; 6th: 10; 7th: 9; 8th: 8; 9th: 7; 10th: 6; 11th: 5; 12th: 4; 13th: 3; 14th: 2; 15th: 1. A myriad of connotations in the race could all play out to determine the title outcome. The end result was Lorenzo won and Rossi finished the race 4th.
The talking points are two elements really the first being Marc Marquez sat right behind shadowing Lorenzo from start to finish in a sloth-like manner. I have never seen him do that in a single race before or since. It was so obviously not his normal race, his body language was different, and there was not a single effort to overtake the leader. Dani Pedrosa (Spanish) always had late race pace and he did once during the space of 4 laps mid race he had closed a gap of 2.5 seconds and was right behind Marc, he lined up and overtook his Repsol (Spanish) Honda teammate….for about 5 seconds! Marc made his only aggressive move of the race at this point and overtook Dani with a block pass, to keep him at bay and halt the progress he was making. Dani looked like he wanted an honest race. The positions stayed like that to the very end, neither Honda even tried the usual last lap, last corner attempt to get past Lorenzo. It was crystal clear the Honda guys had the better race pace that day and could have finished 1 &2. Lorenzo would have been 3rd and Rossi would have been Champion.
In front of a circuit full of fans, a global TV audience of millions saying the same thing Dorna, (Spanish) never issued a single statement about the furore, even after Lorenzo shamefully went in front of the world’s media shown on TV clearly saying he believed his compatriots helped him, keeping the title with a Spanish rider! Pundits tried to dismiss his comments saying the track is notoriously difficult to overtake on… yet Rossi managed to overtake 22 times!