Rossi's action at Sepang in trying to slow Marquez and run him wide to force him to not interfere with the championship, I believe, can not be considered "overly aggressive", because it is within the rules, MM was behind and Rossi was in front, Rossi gave enough space on the left for MM to run wide and not crash, and it was hard racing and not any harder than how MM raced him prior. On top of that, as video evidence showed that it was MM that touched Rossi's foot causing it to jerk forward but MM's first reaction was to lie about it and calling it a "kick".
This brings up an interesting point. Dorna's action in penalizing Rossi causing him to lose the championship and Yamaha's lack of protest at it, suggests that lesser talent needs to somehow find a way to stay competitive, and unfortunately for the sport, this is how they chose to do it. By 'lesser talent', I mean, if you notice, MM almost always crashes out if challenged hard and is incapable of saving his ride; on the other hand greater talent finds ways of surviving the challenge, a la Rossi-MM encounter at Assen. Lorenzo is also in the same mold as MM in that he keeps himself away from being raced hard by staying in front and unless the challenge originates from him but originates from someone else Lorenzo tends to lose confidence and starts going backwards. It is unfortunate that younger guys like MM and JL have given up on their talents and rely on each other and team up with other riders as well as use other off-track antics, like manufacturer bias and Dorna's help, to 'win'. Usually in corporate environments mediocrity becomes evident in folks that are over the hill, but I guess in high speed competitions such as MotoGP it starts early.
This brings up an interesting point. Dorna's action in penalizing Rossi causing him to lose the championship and Yamaha's lack of protest at it, suggests that lesser talent needs to somehow find a way to stay competitive, and unfortunately for the sport, this is how they chose to do it. By 'lesser talent', I mean, if you notice, MM almost always crashes out if challenged hard and is incapable of saving his ride; on the other hand greater talent finds ways of surviving the challenge, a la Rossi-MM encounter at Assen. Lorenzo is also in the same mold as MM in that he keeps himself away from being raced hard by staying in front and unless the challenge originates from him but originates from someone else Lorenzo tends to lose confidence and starts going backwards. It is unfortunate that younger guys like MM and JL have given up on their talents and rely on each other and team up with other riders as well as use other off-track antics, like manufacturer bias and Dorna's help, to 'win'. Usually in corporate environments mediocrity becomes evident in folks that are over the hill, but I guess in high speed competitions such as MotoGP it starts early.
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