I’m sure by now most of you have seen the incredible back-in-forth battle that led to an on-track collision between Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez in the penultimate round of MotoGP at Sepang. After reviewing the video footage of the incident, the FIM imposed a 3-point penalty and took Rossi out of qualifying for the Valencia final—forcing him to start in last position on the grid. With Rossi leading his Championship rival Jorge Lorenzo by only seven points, it means that if Lorenzo wins or finishes 2nd, Rossi will have to finish right behind him to win the Championship. That’s a tall order for anyone, even a multi-time Champion like Rossi.
I know we are dirt people, but you would of had to have been buried under that dirt to have not seen video of the incident in question.
Rossi’s camp filed for an “annulment or reduction of the penalty” and a stay of execution until after Valencia. If the stay was awarded, Rossi would of been able to qualify this weekend, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected the appeal. CAS went on to say that they had not made a final decision on the merits of the full case yet. As it sits now, Rossi will have to pull a rabbit out of his hat to win this Championship. Check out the press release from CAS below.
Valentino Rossi—Request to stay the execution of the FIM Stewards decision is dismissed
Lausanne, 5 November 2015 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed Valentino Rossi’s request to stay the execution of the decision of the FIM Stewards on 25 October 2015. Accordingly, the decision of the FIM Stewards to impose 3 penalty points on Valentino Rossi’s record following an incident with Marc Marquez during the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix held on 25 October 2015 stands, and Valentino Rossi will commence the next (and last) event of the season, to be held in Valencia, Spain on 6-8 November 2015, from the last grid position.
After the race in Malaysia, the FIM Race Direction found that Valentino Rossi had deliberately run wide in order to order to force Marc Marquez off line, resulting in contact causing Marquez to crash out of the race. For this breach of the FIM regulations, the FIM Race Direction imposed 3 penalty points on the rider’s record, a sanction confirmed later by the FIM Stewards. Since Valentino Rossi already has 1 penalty point from an earlier incident this year, this decision brings him to a total of 4 penalty points. On the basis of the FIM Regulations, a rider with 4 penalty points must start the next race from last grid position.
The request for a stay was filed at CAS on 29 October 2015 by Valentino Rossi together with his appeal to have the FIM Steward’s decision regarding the 3 point penalty annulled or at least reduced. The CAS Arbitrator, appointed by mutual agreement of the parties (Prof. Ulrich Hass/Germany) heard the representatives of Mr. Rossi and FIM yesterday at the CAS office in Lausanne in order to rule exclusively on the urgent request for a stay to determine whether or not Valentino Rossi should start from the last grid position in Valencia. The CAS Arbitrator found that the conditions to grant the stay were not met, which means that the sanction imposed by the FIM will have to be served at the next Grand Prix in Valencia.
