For Mike Webb, MotoGP Race Director, “ It was clearly not his fault that he went off the track. But he also had an obligation not to gain any advantage. »
MotoGP race director Mike Webb has explained why Valentino Rossi received a 0.3 penalty at this Sunday's Austin race. A little push from behind by Johann Zarco caused Rossi to short-circuit one of the S-curves. The Italian rejoined the track in third place, but with a slightly greater advantage over Zarco, and closer to Marc Score in front of him.
Mike Webb explained: “ You cannot gain an advantage by leaving the track. He had clearly gained an advantage because he had moved closer to Marquez. We have therefore canceled this advantage.
“But on the other hand, Rossi went off the track unintentionally. Which means he was forced into it by another pilot. If someone deliberately gained an advantage, the penalty would normally be much more than the time they gained. In this case, it clearly wasn't his fault that he went off the track. But he also has an obligation not to take advantage of this circumstance. Because it was clear to everyone, including Rossi, that he had won over Marc. The correct behavior was to remove this advantage, slowing down and returning to the same distance behind Marquez as before the incident, and nothing would have happened.
“The normal penalty is that the driver moves back one place. For us this was out of the question because Rossi was forced off the track. So all we wanted to do was make sure that the time saving was negated.
“A penalty of 0.3 seems ridiculous, but the reason it took a while to give this penalty was because I was waiting for confirmation of the time difference in this sector. Rossi could have done it himself by cutting the throttle, he didn't, so we did it for him. »
Source: crash.net
