British GP (race spoiler)

ratter · 07-13-2003, 6:02 PM

I have not seen the official race results as yet, but I stayed up last night to watch the moto gp race.
Rossi, had a bad start and dropped back to seventh, but fought through in the first few laps to get into 2nd and then he followed Biaggi for half the race, biaggi made a mistake and Rossi passed him and lead to the fininsh from there.
I have just heard on the radio that Rossi was been put back to position no 3 but no reason why.
What i did see on the Tv was, rossi appeared to pass another rider going into turn 1 on probably the 2nd lap, but it appeared to have yellow flags out at the time.

If this is what the penalty was for, why wouldn't they give him a ride through penalty earlier in the race rather than wait until the end and penalise him so thet he acn not do anything about it.
We all know how Rossi rides, if he was given the penalty early enough, he may have been able to ride his way back to the top of the podium.

I may not have the facts 100% correct, but can anyone else share some more info?

Baketech · 07-13-2003, 6:07 PM

Quote After a dramatic race on the track at Donington Park this afternoon the action continued behind closed doors as Valentino Rossi was docked 10 seconds for overtaking under yellow flags and victory at the Cinzano British Grand Prix was handed to Max Biaggi. Rossi had initially emerged victorious from the 30 lap race, sharing the winner's champagne with the adoring British public after topping the podium from Biaggi and Sete Gibernau. However, an investigation from Race Direction revealed that the World Champion had passed Loris Capirossi in the aftermath of a first corner melee which saw Tohru Ukawa crash out. Rossi was accordingly penalised and relegated to third place, leaving Biaggi to celebrate a surprise first win of the season as Gibernau was promoted to second

firebladetoronto · 07-13-2003, 6:58 PM

WTF??? Rossi must be pissed!!! I think his goal this year was not to let Max win, no matter what...now that has happened...he must be so pissed!!

abtech · 07-13-2003, 7:09 PM

wah, wah, wah . . .

Baketech · 07-13-2003, 7:47 PM

Ironically, I bet Biaggi is more pissed than Rossi...

deez · 07-13-2003, 8:15 PM

Quote:

abtech : wah, wah, wah . . .

My sentiments exactly, big f'in deal. *I'm glad this happened. *If that is the rule then he must pay the price. *What is beautiful will be the rest of the season. * the last thing you want to do is piss that guy off. The next few races should be much more enjoyable because today I really didn't see Rossi work very hard and his bike crossed the line first. *Biaatchi knew when he got passed what his place was. *If he would have challenged Rossi at all, Rossi would have upped the pace and walked away some more.

nhfirefighter13 · 07-13-2003, 8:18 PM

Quote:

Baketech : Ironically, I bet Biaggi is more pissed than Rossi...

No doubt...He can't claim this as a 'win' over his arch enemy as he won due to a technicality.

As for the penalty.....Rules are rules. They have to be applied to everyone equaly or they are worthless...of course they could have pulled him in earlier, I guess, but people make mistakes.

ratter · 07-14-2003, 3:22 AM

they had another 28 laps to make a decision and they wait until after race is over

SuperGaijin · 07-14-2003, 8:46 AM

Yep, I reviewed his pass a few times. Pretty flagrant yellow flag, guess he committed too hard or didn't see it, Capirossi sure did and left the door wide open. *It looked as though no one knew until Capirossi got to the pits, then Duc was on the horn to the officials. The Japanese commentator kind of hesitated when it happened....he was like 'uh, Rossi's up to fourth' in a kind of unsure voice. Pretty annoying given they had the whole damn race to sort it out...'course their hands were full keeping shirtless spectators off the track....

Baketech · 07-14-2003, 9:05 AM

Here are the quotes from the Honda guys....

Quote
Max Biaggi
Camel Pramac Honda Pons: 1st
“I am happy with my performance in the race because we have done some excellent work adapting to the new chassis in only four hours of practice. The decision of the race officials means that the 25-points go my way, but as a rider I can sympathise with Valentino. I understand what he must be feeling at this time because the same thing happened to me in the race in Barcelona in 1998 which I had won on the track. The only difference is that that decision subsequently cost me the championship.”

Sete Gibernau
Telefonica MoviStar Honda: 2nd
“It was a very hard race, Max and Valentino set a fast pace from the start. When I was aware I could not follow them, I was loosing a couple of tenths a lap out of the turns, I concentrated on keeping the damage at a couple of tenths. Even if I m happy with my result I don't feel like I finished second, I was third. Valentino rode a great race.”

Valentino Rossi
Repsol Honda: 3rd
“The final result of the race is disappointing for me. I was on a fast lap and never saw the flags. I did nothing wrong intentionally. I am disappointed but the rules are the rules and I can't argue with the law. I didn't take advantage of the situation and went on to win the race. I only hope the outcome of the race doesn't affect the Championship in the end. I feel clear in myself. I won a hard fought clean race. I race on the track not in the office.”

Nicky Hayden
Repsol Honda Team: 8th
“I have to say I was expecting more today. I thought I had a little bit more speed than that especially as things felt so good this morning in the warm-up. I guess overall the weekend was reasonably positive. In the race I had some good battle with some guys. Bayliss and me early on, and also Edwards and Haga. In the last laps the rear brake gave up and I had no confidence in braking. I used the rear brake a lot - especially round here to try and keep the front wheel on the ground. Overall the weekend was OK and things seem to be coming better. We're off the Brno to test next week. Hopefully picking things up all the time.”

Edit:
Apparently the mistake that led Biaggi to run wide, was a false neutral.....

Crash · 07-14-2003, 2:14 PM

O got to say, that Max seems almost sympathitic towards Rossi!! Wow, but it was still nice to see him fold like a deck of cards and make that mistake, it's never his fault of course. I love what Doohan said about that. 'Max has been racing long enough to not make mistakes like that. Rossi clearly puts the pressure on and Max can't handle it' or something to that effect Great Race. Nicky got some camera time !!!!

ondablade · 07-14-2003, 2:52 PM

Doohan is being less than fair to Biaggi, some history kicking in there I'd have to say. Biaggi whinges a lot, but he's a big tryer and actually makes fewer mistakes than Rossi.
I'm a big fan of Rossi and his unmatched riding skills, but strip away the hero worship and his record under pressure this year and late last is nothing to shout about either. Look at his consistently bad starts, and the way Gibernau has consistently beaten him when he's got close enough to scrap with him.
It's fortunate he's generally got a bit of pace in hand over the others or he'd be looking pretty shabby by now.
Rossi's passing Capirossi under a yellow was actually a much more basic error and was the one that decided the Donnington race. I'll not argue about who the best rider on the day was, but the fact is that by Doohan's own bottom line oriented measure MAX WON!!!!!
I'd say Doohan let himself down by taking a cheap pop at him....

ratter · 07-14-2003, 6:31 PM

As an aussie. i'd like to defend doohan, but i think you are correct, doohan should have shut up and not made the comments, i think he is still remembering his episodes with biaggi mouth and thought he would get 1 back at him.

ondablade · 07-15-2003, 5:39 AM

I've the utmost regard for Doohan as rider. I doubt if it made him happy, but it made him one hell of a competitor. His single minded focus on winning is arguably the major ingredient Rossi is missing.
Rossi is a real fighter when the situation develops, but I think off line is less focused and a bit lazy for some reason. (two seasons later and he's still not getting the RCV off the line fast) Maybe precisely because he has so much ability in hand that he can afford to be a bit more laid back.
It was wrong that the race stewards did not announce the penalty as it happened, as by retrospectively applying it they robbed Rossi of the chance to try to overcome it during the race. If it was the result of a protest I'd say it may have been delayed precisely for that reason. It would have been fun watching Rossi trying to pull out a ten second lead....

mu-shim · 07-17-2003, 6:12 AM

Quote O got to say, that Max seems almost sympathitic towards Rossi!!

It seems that way, but in the actual interview (just saw it yesterday) he kind of says (as I paraphrase wildly):
'i know how he feels, but when it happened to me, I actually got disqualified from the race and lost the championship, and he still gets to come in third, so he should consider himself lucky the little attention-grabbing ba****d on his fancy honda'

Something like that anyway

mu-shim · 07-17-2003, 6:24 AM

BTW, I think it's a bit rough on Rossi that he didn't get the chance to try to make up the time during the race. With 28 laps to do so, I'd say he could have made up a lot of the time, like his peformance at Catalunya. It certainly would have made for a good spectacle.

I heard one commentator saying, after the yellow flag incident, that he might be shown by his pit team that he was to be penalised. Seems like a fairer way of doing things to me.