Was Marquez helping Lorenzo at Valencia?
Yes.
If there was any doubt about Marquez’s intentions at Philip Island and Sepang, yesterday’s race made things pretty clear. Sure, his moves were not as obvious as Petrucci’s when he almost ran off the track to let Rossi pass, but all through the race he could almost sniff Lorenzo’s butt, but never made a single attempt to even slightly annoy him.
I’d never seen Marquez brake DIRECTLY behind another rider, until yesterday.
What’s wrong with that?
But here’s the basic problem, if Petrucci helps Rossi, nobody bats an eye, but if Marquez helps Lorenzo, everybody loses their minds. Why is that so?
The biggest reason would be that Petrucci was honest about it, and Marquez is not. If you watched the post-race press conference, you could see how eloquently he explained why Marc Marquez, probably the most aggressive rider in the history of MotoGP, was not able to put a single move on Lorenzo, even during the last 5 laps when Jorge was clearly slowing down.
Although he didn’t face any trouble pushing Pedrosa behind, who was faster than both Marquez and Lorenzo by probably half a second per lap at that time.
There’s nothing illegal about trying to help another rider on a track, as long as you don’t fuck with somebody else. You have to really commend Marquez on the job that he has done, always staying in the grey area, never admitting the facts.
But why would he do it?
Marquez is a double world champion, what could possibly cause him to throw sportsmanship out the window and gang-up on Rossi like that? I can only speculate here, but there could be a number of reasons for this behavior of his. The biggest one could be political, nationalistic. But more importantly, it’s possible that Marquez blames Rossi for destroying his 2015 MotoGP season.
He would obviously be wrong in that assumption, since the only person to blame for his regular crashes is him, but maybe we don’t know something he does. Just maybe.
However, the thing that troubled me most since the last month or so, is that Marquez got to Rossi. The Doctor is supposed to be a 9 time world champ, his experience in MotoGP is probably higher than Marquez’s and Lorenzo’s, combined. How did he let this stupid behavior affect him, forcing him to make that mistake crashing Marquez?
But did he really?
Rumors have it that Marquez intentionally put his bike down, like a football player faking injury. Honda claims that their telemetry data shows a spike on the front brake pressure, which must have come from Rossi’s knee. The only trouble is, MotoGP riders have a metal guard rail just in front of the brake to prevent exactly such a thing from happening.
We’ll never know.
Rossi doesn’t need another world champion, he is a living fucking legend. I don’t think the championship result would’ve been much different even if Rossi hadn’t started from the back of the grid, but there surely would’ve been a lot less heartburn about the whole fiasco. Rossi had a chance to be the bigger man, so did Lorenzo, and Marquez too, but unfortunately all of them blew it.
Apart from the Leonardo DiCaprio of MotoGP.
Dani Pedrosa proved yet again that not only he is the fastest “Man” on the track, but he’s one of the few who was actually racing just for the fun of it. There has been nobody more unlucky than him in the last few years or so, but magically, he doesn’t give a shit. All you see him ever doing is pushing like a maniac, and smiling.
All eyes are on the 2016 season now, which is going to be interesting for sure. The Ducatis are more than capable of causing mayhem, so are the factory Suzukis. We’ll also have Tito Rabat coming in from Moto2, and things might get interesting there as well.
But the most interesting thing would be to see how much help Lorenzo gets from Marquez in 2016.
As for me, the 2015 MotoGP World Champion was Gavin the dead Seagull, who laid down his life purely for the love of this sport.
Easy to tell you’re a Rossi fanboy. I was ! Long story short, one guy called CS27 showed Rossi is beatable over and over, then another called JL99, who too I didn’t like initially but won my respect as he grew under the shadow of VR46, from a rough and charging crashing dude to a polished, smooth , clean racer. Suffice to say, I turned from being fanboy to observer – it sounds it’s not fun, but I prefer the position of neutrality.
Rossi brought his demise upon himself. He alone is responsible for his 2015 title loss.
Everyone speaks of JL, MM and DP as if they’re chaddi buddies, being all Spaniards. Nope. JL and DP earlier wouldn’t even talk to each other. MM is younger, different generation, but no friend of either JL or DP. While they sure will prefer and be proud to have a Spaniard for a champ than an Italian, none of them will give way without a fight for their own points. Even if you come 3rd overall, the points you earn go to the team and count as your appraisal. Why should MM be overly courteous and let Rossi pass, losing a podium ? He has to answer to HRC bosses too. They won’t take kindly to this kid throwing away points, to a rival at that.
What Rossi has done is character assassination of JL and MM. By accusing them of conspiring to keep him from winning, VR has undermined the credibility of Dorna/FIM as well. He has no proof, in all likelihood there can be no proof because it’s all in his head – he’s delusional. MM is the biggest threat to JL , not VR.
The simple fact is, in 2015 neither JL nor MM were consistent. MM didn’t get some his stability back until reverting to 2014 chassis, while JL made silly mistakes with tyre choice, staying out on wet tyres too long, helmet fogging in rain, losing points. DP was out for a few races, due to surgery. This is what allowed VR to take more podiums in 2015 than he was able to in 2013 and 2014 ( all 3 years on Yamaha ). Had MM been dominant like in 2013, or had JL not made stupid choices, VR would not have been in a realistic contention for 2015 title.
And it’s watching MM struggle to maintain the pace and crash , 6-7 times in 2015, that tells me he’s not deliberately sitting behind JL just to spite Rossi. And no, it’s not Rossi’s mind games that cause MM to crash. MM did take the win from JL in Philip Island, on the last corner, another of those things VR fanboys conveniently ignore in order to keep their conspiracy theory being punctured.
MM is always aggressive, and has no special liking for JL. He was a Rossi fan, but that too doesn’t stop him from fighting out his idol on track. He is a junior Rossi – brash, confident, aggressive. 36 year old Rossi met a 22 year old Rossi and didn’t like it. Remember, it was Rossi who defended Marco Simoncelli’s aggressive riding and moves on Lorenzo, saying it’s racing and Lorenzo should learn to take in stride of racing. Now MM does it Rossi a few times, he’s annoyed. He assumes MM is holding a grudge against him for the Argentine victory ( where VR and MM collided, VR going straight to gravel and winning in final lap while MM lost time recovering in the corner before the chequered flag). VR likes to dish out, but doesn’t like it when other dish out the same back to him. This is the same VR who dropped long time engineer-friend Jeremy Burgess like a rotten apple all of a sudden. Saintly ? Ethical ? He’s as human and as flawed and as sore-loser as the rest of the racers who get branded cry-babies and moaners.
MM would do the same to JL, as VR. But it was VR’s accusation post Philip Island, that angered MM. Normally riders will talk and sort out matters before going to media. MM sure did tussle with Rossi a lot, but not out of any grudge, just a desire to prove himself. Rossi’s delusional outburst claiming conspiracy set the avalance in action, angering MM to deliberately take on Rossi in Sepang. Rossi threw out the chum , MM took the bait.
After the race, MM seems to have got a stern warning from Dorna to behave, hence the tame 2nd spot at Valencia. He was sizing up Lorenzo, came close to overtaking too a few times, but didn’t spring – maybe too risky, we as observers can’t feel the bars shake and the wheels hop/slide, so it’s easy to accuse the Honda riders of not trying to overtake, whereas in reality , they could be close to the limit and hence playing it safe.
Anything is possible, everything you have said, like everything I’ve said, is unfalsifiable.
Yes I am a Rossi fan.
And let’s not act ignorant Akhil, go back to 2010 season. Lorenzo was almost winning the title, Dani was in second position and had missed out on races and Rossi who no longer had his chances started playing with Jorge doing dangerous passes even after Yamaha warned him not to so they can win the world title with 99. Do you remember what Rossi said that day?
“I was surprised he was so upset. I’ve watched the race on TV and it was
great with some hard overtaking. I was aggressive but he was also
aggressive. It is the last lap and you’re fighting for the podium.”
“Does he think he can be aggressive with me and me not with
him? I always give the maximum. I did with him like I would with any
other rider who tried to beat me on the last lap.
“I said to Yamaha, ‘what do you expect from me, to arrive behind?’ If I know this, I will stay at home.”
I didn’t know this. Rossi is no saint 🙂
The one reason i dislike him is because whenever some guy on the grid out does him consistently, he starts to plant fake stories and turns them into villains. There’s a long list of people who left the sport because of the politics he created on the grid and how his fans treated those riders that were vilified by him.
But then again, my disdain starts from the year 2004 when his team was caught on circuit camera doing burnout with scooters to increase his grip for race day and he was penalized for it to start from last. It was Honda that complained about it so Rossi openly said that he cursed Gibernau that he will never win another race in his career.
Interesting.
Well , I think Marquez hates Rossi cz the doc went a bit a naughty on Marc’s girlfriend???
😛
We’ll NEVER know for sure… 😛
We won’t.
Marquez was very sure that Pedrosa would be coming and ripping Lorenzo off… And he almost came to both of them in the last lap… Marquez was guarding Lorenzo all the time… He ensured that no one, even Pedrosa could not disturb Lorenzo… Lorenzo surely had the bike’s tires worn out by the final lap… And by that time, Pedrosa almost came and was about to challenge Lorenzo but Marquez ensured that he stays out…
This is my first year of watching Moto GP and I instantly I felt that there is lesser sportsmanship in this sport… The match-fixing like stuff is clearly visible in every race but still nothing happens about it…
If Lorenzo’s tyres were worn out, shouldn’t Marquez have his tyres worn out too since he was always less than 0.5 seconds behind Jorge from start to finish and given that in the free practice sessions both Dani and Marc noted tyre wear problems for the track?
Secondly, how did Dani catch up to the leaders after falling back so far? Isn’t Rossi’s accusation of “You cannot do fast laps at the end of the race” contradicting Dani’s pace? Or is it true that Dani was conserving his tyres for the last lap just like Marquez was in the last few races to do last lap passes on his rivals like he has done many times this season? As per Marc, he was lining up Jorge for the pass before Dani interrupted and as per Dani, he ran wide after missing a gear shift which is why he fell back again. Are you saying Dani is also on Lorenzo’s payroll?
Then so must be Casey, Ago and Biaggi
I said if Dani could come so close to the couple then why couldn’t Marquez couldn’t overtake once for the entire 30 laps race? During live broadcast the speedo of both Lorenzo was shown, where Marquez was atleast 5-10k slower than Lorenzo at most corners… Plus the Honda’s RC-213V is much faster than Yamaha’s YZR-M1 in straight line… Dani reduced the gap with this very advantage but Marquez did absolutely nothing…
Did you see the tyres of the bikes at parc ferme? Dani said he preserved his tyres for the last few laps while Marc and Jorge began to drop pace as they had been putting on fast pace for all 30 laps and had ended up wearing out the tyres.
Secondly, did you watch the qualifying pace set by Lorenzo? He was half a second quicker than everyone because the track suits the Yamahas more than the Hondas in the corners. Hondas don’t like slow corners and and lose time in entry compared to Yamahas.
Dani reduced the gap because both front runners had slowed their pace with worn tyres while Dani had saved his tyres by staying away until the end. He put that out there immediately in the post race media byte and also acknowledged that he ran wide after missing a gear which is what made him fall back again.
Unfortunately, you may be right.