MotoGP: Race control explains Rossi penalty

Sunday’s American Grand Prix saw a day of high action for Movistar Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi, as an incident in the opening lap of the race with Monster Yamaha rookie Johann Zarco saw the Italian run wide after contact between the pair of them

The championship leader was then hit with a controversial 0.3 second time penalty for gaining an advantage in the aftermath of the incident as he ran across the run-off, as he cut the next corner short and closed in on Marc Marquez ahead of them.

But, speaking to MCN after the race, race director Mike Webb explained the logic behind penalising Rossi by such a small margin – a penalty that in the end became irrelevant anyway as Rossi beat Dani Pedrosa for second by two seconds.

“You can’t gain advantage by going off the track. That’s in the rule book. But he was off the track thanks to no track of his own, and if he’d realised that he’d gained an advantage to Marquez and close the throttle enough to give that advantage back we wouldn’t be talking about it at all.

“He didn’t give the advantage back so it became up to us to do that, but taking into consideration that he was forced off the track, we couldn’t apply a punitive penalty like a position. So instead, we took back the advantage he gained, which was quite clear from the timekeepers.”