Whoopsy:

But one last question up in the air, both riders are very experienced, they know what their bikes' limit is, Marquez has to know he will be running out of real estate on the track very soon with Rossi's trajectory through the corner, why didn't he yield to avoid a collision? Did he seriously think he could get out of that jam without incident? I know all racers are wired to be unyielding on a track, but even car racers will concede a piece of the track if they can see they got nowhere to go, lose that battle but keep the war going later in the session. The only reasonable explanation is that Marquez doesn't care, he was hoping to get both riders out with a collision, kind of like how Alain Prost cash out Senna purposely in Japan. 

I can see how that question could arise from a 4-wheel point of view. The answer is that two wheel dinamics on the turn is different, in a car you could brake harder and at the same time still turn, hence maybe safely avoiding Rossi. But in a bike if Marquez with that turn angle should have braked hard enough to avoid Rossi we would of likely lost traction and likely fall (tank slapper if the rear slips, nose dive if the front losses it), the only safe way to slow down in that situation is to lift the bike up back verticallty and then brake, but that would mean to go staright and go off the track completely.

The reason Marquez was turning into the corner is that he expected Rossi to do the same, afterall they were reaching the limit of the tack, and so they would of both have exited the corner safely in paralell, with Rossi coming out in front at the exit of the corner. That happens all the time when both riders go into a turn side by side and go wide, after they shaved sufficient speed off they turn back into the corner and open throttle side by side, with the inside rider gaining the advantage position after the exit. There is not much risk there, even minor bumps between riders are not a danger if both riders and moving parallel in the same direction exiting the corner (in this case they weren't moving exactly in parallel, casue Rossi was still going wide on purpose to lean on Marquez).

The key is that Rossi did not act normally and as expected, he actively looked for the contact, and that is why Marquez was caught by surprise (he had to lift the bike once already he didn't expect a second cause there was no need), he did not expect such a contact there. Watch how different the body postures of both riders on the bike were, Marquez had the body posture of when you are exiting the corner yet Rossi had the body posture you have when you are entering the corner still, only after Marquez goes down does Rossi quickly switch to "exit corner porture" and takes off. There wasn't even supposed to be any at all, Marquez had run a bit wide and the door was wide open for Rossi to go through the corner without being near Marquez at all and would of exited at lest a couple of bike legths clear of Marquez in front.

Marquez could of been more conservative, but then that would of meant loosing too much time with respect to Rossi and heated MotoGP battles are like that, but nothing would of happened if Rossi would of riden normal line and would not of not seeked a contact.

 

 

I just hope that everybody behaves in Valencia next week, including the fans which will be mostly spanish, so specially the fans I hope act with respect towards all riders involved, and that whatever happens in the end, it will be the result of ethical and sportmanship riding in the race. This has escalated enough already and such a gentleman sport has been stained anough with this. Its sad to see.

If there is any justice or karma, Rossi will loose the championship because of what he did since because of who he is and his influence, was not punished by the organisation by the normal standard like any other rider would have been, which would of been an inmediate black flag at minimum.


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⇒ Carlos - Porsche 991 Carrera GTS