Rossi lodges new appeal against penalty points

The FIM have confirmed that Valentino Rossi has lodged an eleventh hour appeal to the Court of Arbitration in Sport against the three penalty points he was issued for the collision between him and Marc Marquez at last weekend’s Sepang MotoGP.

The Swiss-based international body serves at the ultimate arbiter of legal battles and appeals for many sports, most commonly coming into the news in relation to doping offences.

Normally the process can take up to a year to reach a decision, but there is also an option to have cases heard in the short term in order to issue a temporary suspension of the penalty, a route that Rossi has taken in order to try and rescind his back-of-the-grid penalty for next week’s final round of the series in Valencia.

The sport’s governing body, the FIM, issued this statement:

On the basis of Article 3.4.2, para 3 of the FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix Regulations, Mr Valentino Rossi has filed an Appeal against the decision taken by the Race Direction of the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix in Sepang, penultimate round of the FIM MotoGP Grand Prix World Championship, and confirmed by the FIM Stewards, to award 3 penalty points to Mr Rossi following an incident on Turn 14.

In appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Mr Rossi seeks annulment or reduction of the penalty. He further requests stay of execution of the decision in accordance with Article R37 of the Code of Sports-Related Arbitration. 

The FIM will not comment any further at this time.