How to seriously tarnish a 20yrs fantastic career

[CapeDoctor]

the best Rossi fans can hope for now, is that hte two Honda's are in front of Lorenzo. in this case, Vale would need to finish in sixth place to win the title, which isn't out of the question. A long shot, but still a shot.... 

[HornetMaX]

I really wouldn't like to be one of the other riders (outside vale, jorge and marc): anyone of them that sunday will barely try fight back vale will be labeled as pro-jorge (or pro-marc, or pro-honda, or pro-spain) by at least two thirds of the motogp fans ...

I think Rossi will see little opposition from other riders: not because they want to help him, but just because the do not want to be in the middle of a sh!tstorm if they don't do it.

MaX.

[Boerenlater]

Riders should be able to battle for position with Rossi and not being branded pro- or against anyone.

[CapeDoctor]

absolutely agreed, Boeren...
as much as i would like Rossi to win, the last thing i want is for him to win because others let him. no championship should be given to anyone because they 'deserve' it, they must earn it, no matter who.
that said, i hope Rossi pulls something special out of the bag on Sunday (let's face it, it will have to be something really special if he wants the title), and i hope we are in for one last great treat for this season

[Napalm Nick]

My perfect weekend:

Race 1: Moto 3: Danny Kent wins a fair and deserved championship.
Race 2: Moto 2: Sam Lowes sticks it to the man and not to the scenery.
Race 3: The top four fall off, Rossi wins a well deserved championship, Bradley Smith takes a well deserved (on that bike) top spot.

After that I will mostly be....very drunk.

[h106frp]

Biggest controversy would be if he was fasted during practice and qualifying and then lost out on the title by a few seconds 

[HornetMaX]

Any possible scenario will lead to a controversy now. Really, whoever will win, the other will have something to say. Bad.

[Abigor]

absolutely agreed, Boeren...
as much as i would like Rossi to win, the last thing i want is for him to win because others let him. no championship should be given to anyone because they 'deserve' it, they must earn it, no matter who.
that said, i hope Rossi pulls something special out of the bag on Sunday (let's face it, it will have to be something really special if he wants the title), and i hope we are in for one last great treat for this season

Well then Lorenzo dont deserve it too.....big help from Márquez in last race!!!......i will love to see Andre Lennone do the samme shit to Lorenzo this weekend!!!

[Hawk]

Well I think they have made the wrong decision. If Rossi doesn't manage to get through the field and win the Championship then everyone will be saying that the authorities robbed him of it and that Rossi is the real MotoGP Champ.
If Jorge wins the champs then he must know that he's won it by default and therefore cannot be a true champion.

In the fans minds this will always now be the case throughout MotoGP history... What fools FIM are... Unbelievable!! They could've ruled in Rossi's favour and let Jorge and Rossi battle the champs out fair and square.... Now if Rossi doesn't win there will always be a doubt who is the true MotoGP Champion of 2015. Idiots! 

Hawk.

[BOBR6 84]

Hopefully bautista goes bowling again on the first corner! 

[HornetMaX]

In the fans minds this will always now be the case throughout MotoGP history... What fools FIM are... Unbelievable!! They could've ruled in Rossi's favour and let Jorge and Rossi battle the champs out fair and square.... Now if Rossi doesn't win there will always be a doubt who is the true MotoGP Champion of 2015. Idiots! 

But if they didn't penalize Rossi and Rossi then won the champ, Lorenzo could have said the same (and quite rightly so, as what Rossi did is definitely outside the rules).

I don't see how most of  the people just forget that ... it's not "fair and square" when one pushes another out of the track intentionally. No matter what.
I can understand the folks saying marquez should be penalized (even if it's hard to prove), but I can't understand the ones saying vale should not have been penalized: he took out somebody that was fighting with him for a 3rd place (and 3 extra points, that could be very important for vale). Even if there's no proven kick.

Let's say in Valencia, last lap, dani is 1st, marc is 2nd, jorge 3rd and vale 6th: if race ends like this, vale wins as he only loses 6 pts to jorge.
Now at the last corner jorge attacks marc and blatantly pushes him out of the race: as a result jorge is 2nd and vale 5th. Now jorge wins because he gets 9 more points than vale.

Would you say that is fair and square ? Do you think vale won't complain ? Come on ...

[Boerenlater]

The sad thing this shit will go on until at least Qatar 2016.

[Hawk]

In the fans minds this will always now be the case throughout MotoGP history... What fools FIM are... Unbelievable!! They could've ruled in Rossi's favour and let Jorge and Rossi battle the champs out fair and square.... Now if Rossi doesn't win there will always be a doubt who is the true MotoGP Champion of 2015. Idiots! 

But if they didn't penalize Rossi and Rossi then won the champ, Lorenzo could have said the same (and quite rightly so, as what Rossi did is definitely outside the rules).

I don't see how most of  the people just forget that ... it's not "fair and square" when one pushes another out of the track intentionally. No matter what.
I can understand the folks saying marquez should be penalized (even if it's hard to prove), but I can't understand the ones saying vale should not have been penalized: he took out somebody that was fighting with him for a 3rd place (and 3 extra points, that could be very important for vale). Even if there's no proven kick.

Let's say in Valencia, last lap, dani is 1st, marc is 2nd, jorge 3rd and vale 6th: if race ends like this, vale wins as he only loses 6 pts to jorge.
Now at the last corner jorge attacks marc and blatantly pushes him out of the race: as a result jorge is 2nd and vale 5th. Now jorge wins because he gets 9 more points than vale.

Would you say that is fair and square ? Do you think vale won't complain ? Come on ...

We obviously have a different point of view on this Max...... The thing is that now if Rossi doesn't win people will say he was robbed, and yet if Jorge wins they will say that he only won because Rossi was relegated to the back of the grid for the last vital race. So why couldn't the authorities see sense and put this historical issue to bed and let them race it out fair and square? Then the best rider wins.... As it is the 2015 MotoGP Champs has as near as damn it been decided by the authorities.

I for one wouldn't want to win a championship under those circumstances because I'd never know for sure if I could've won it had Rossi not been banned to the back of the grid.... That would always stick in my gut. But then again, Jorge is probably one of those people who doesn't give a damn whether he wins fair and square as long as he wins, but the fans will know different for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if Jorge wins that he gets booed on the podium. That would be very unfortunate but this bad decision by the authorities has created this situation.

Hawk.

[Stout Johnson]

I don't see how most of  the people just forget that ... it's not "fair and square" when one pushes another out of the track intentionally. No matter what.

The ones referring to "fair and square" are just making an argument that the championship should be battled out on track between Lorenzo and Rossi like it has been all year. And letting Rossi start from the back sure gives him a disadvantage. Don't get me wrong, I do have the opinion that Rossi's behaviour was bad. But that this behaviour and the implied sanctions cost him in all likelihood the championship, still leaves a bad taste in one's mouth, even if you want to put Sepang behind. And there for sure will always hang like a dark cloud over this MotoGP title if Lorenzo wins it. Because in direct comparison, Rossi was leading the championship standings. If I was Lorenzo, I would have rooted for Rossi to be cleared of his penalty points, so I would have had the possibility to win the championship directly from Rossi. Valencia is not a track where Rossi is particularly good and results like Lorenzo 1st and Rossi 3rd or worse, Lorenzo 2nd and Rossi 4th or worse would all have meant Lorenzo to win the championship. That would have been a cool move by Lorenzo.

In general, I am glad the they upheld the decision to give Rossi 3 penalty points for running Marquez off in Sepang. Although it mainly is about sending a signal that this behaviour is not acceptable. Because the reaction of Rossi was dirty and not sportsmanlike. But let's keep the facts straight: Rossi was penalized with 3 penalty points for his behaviour in Sepang. If Rossi would not have already received 1 penalty point for his obstruction in Qualifying in Misano, then he would not have been demoted to last place on the grid in Valencia. Rossi's behaviour in Sepang would have led to 3 penalty points as a sort of "warning" but he still would have had every opportunity to win the championship in Valencia. I am pretty sure the Spaniards would be complaining about Rossi not being penalized enough. But at least the championship would have been battled out on the track.

And I am being a realist. It is by no means impossible for Rossi to still win the championship, but very hard if one looks at it realistically. Lorenzo is in his comfort zone, Rossi cannot directly put pressure on Lorenzo on the track and that is when Lorenzo is at his best. And Valencia is not quite the best track for overtakes, so I think Vale will be hard pressed to cut through the field, always at danger of running into someone who is fighting for his position.

EDIT: Hawk already explained it nicely...

[HornetMaX]

But what would you prefer (if you were Rossi):

• to start last in Valencia but keep your 7pts lead (as in relaity), or
• to quali as normal in Valencia and have only 4pts lead (not to speak about being 9pts behind) ?

People (not necessarily here on this forum) moan about the decision but then do not answer the simple question.
4pts lead mean sthat if jorge wins, it's over ...

Funnily enough, nobody dared to ask this to Rossi