Petrucci admits to letting Rossi by at Valencia

JPSLotus · Dec 18, 2015

"It's not like it helped [Rossi] that much," he told Motorsport.com. "And I like I said many times, I would also have let Jorge through.

So we have proof someone helped Rossi. The addition of JL to his statement means ....-all since that was never a real scenario.

Petrucci defends allowing Rossi to pass at Valencia

Pramac Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci has defended his actions in the season-closing Valencia MotoGP race, saying letting by Valentino Rossi did not help his compatriot “that much.”

As punishment for the controversial clash with Marc Marquez during the preceding race at Sepang, Rossi was forced to start from the back of the grid for the Valencia title decider.

The 36-year-old soon carved his way through the field up to fourth place – where he would ultimately finish, as teammate and bitter rival Jorge Lorenzo won the race and the championship.

Petrucci in particular offered Rossi little resistance, running wide at Turn 2 on the seventh lap to allow Rossi, as well as Bradley Smith, to pass.

But Petrucci insists it would have made no difference to the outcome had he made a more concerted effort to hold Rossi at bay – and that he didn't want to be a "hero".

"It's not like it helped [Rossi] that much," he told Motorsport.com. "And I like I said many times, I would also have let Jorge through.

"I did not want to be a hero, keep Valentino behind me for two laps and hinder him for nothing. It wouldn't have changed anything; in the end he would have passed me anyway."

While FIM President Vito Ippolito said the Rossi-Marquez controversy had "poisoned" the atmosphere within MotoGP, Petrucci said he felt it didn't change much for the majority of the riders.

"I believe it only concerned those directly involved," said the Italian. "It hasn't changed the relationship between the riders who weren't involved much.

"So next year everything should be normal, at least for those who weren't involved."
Breakthrough season

In his first season on Ducati machinery after three years spent towards the back of the grid, Petrucci produced a convincing campaign, establishing himself as a regular presence in the Top 10 and scoring over double the points of Pramac teammate Yonny Hernandez.

Petrucci's best result of the year came in miserable conditions at Silverstone, where he took a superb second place and at one stage appeared on course to stage a spectacular upset and deny Rossi victory.

"My objective was to try to finish every race in the points and I ended up in the Top 10 at practically every race," he said.

"And then at Silverstone, I took advantage of the chance that came to me. I'm glad, because I achieved my targets."

Asked what his goal for next year aboard the Desmosedici GP15, he added: "It would be good to be more comfortably inside the Top 10.

"This year, I lacked a bit of experience to stay with the leaders, but next year I will have a bit more experience and this will help me to progress."

He may not have featured towards the top of the timesheets in last month's post-season Valencia test, but Petrucci admits it will take time to adapt to next year's Michelin tyres and standard electronics.

"Almost everything is new," he said. "The Michelin tyres require a different riding style that we are in the process of getting used to.

"It's the same with the electronics, which are not at the level we're used to from this year. We've got work to do, but we've only had two test sessions.

"Maybe we can take advantage of these differences next year and throw up a few more surprises."

Interview by Matteo Nugnes

So basically it's okay for guys to help Rossi, because that's what going wide so he could get by is doing.

Yet the idea that MM may have helped JL is considered an egregious violation of sporting principles even though no evidence exists any help was given. Yet here we have proof a rider actually helped VR and this is perfectly acceptable. Two sets of standards as usual.

#22 · Dec 18, 2015

Wonder if the hate campaign towards Petrucci will start now. I must admit I like the guy, but that pissed me off when I saw him so obviously do it.

JPSLotus · Dec 18, 2015

#22 said:
Wonder if the hate campaign towards Petrucci will start now. I must admit I like the guy, but that pissed me off when I saw him so obviously do it.

No, if anything, the Yellow Horde will talk about Petrucci's upstanding character for letting their deity on by.

elptxjc · Dec 18, 2015

In that case, it was absolutely obvious he let Rossi by. No need to admit it IMO.

yamaka46 · Dec 18, 2015

JPSLotus said:
So we have proof someone helped Rossi. The addition of JL to his statement means ....-all since that was never a real scenario.

So basically it's okay for guys to help Rossi, because that's what going wide so he could get by is doing.

Yet the idea that MM may have helped JL is considered an egregious violation of sporting principles even though no evidence exists any help was given. Yet here we have proof a rider actually helped VR and this is perfectly acceptable. Two sets of standards as usual.

The only reason MM going wide and letting JL past was even discussed was because he then fought extremely hard with VR. If Petrucci had been in a position to let VR by but fight with JL, that would also have been seen as an issue, even by the Yellow Hordes I think.

But without the 2nd part of the story it's a non-issue IMO, especially as there was no way Rossi could climb above 4th given the number of riders he had to pass. If all riders between him & the 3 top Spaniards had parked it on the grid until Rossi passed, that would have been an issue - other riders deliberately affecting the championship rather than riding their own races.

If MM had let both championship contenders by, that would have been fine. Or fought hard with both. That's the only reason some people see it as a violation of sporting principles AFAIU.

michaelm · Dec 18, 2015

yamaka46 said:
The only reason MM going wide and letting JL past was even discussed was because he then fought extremely hard with VR. If Petrucci had been in a position to let VR by but fight with JL, that would also have been seen as an issue, even by the Yellow Hordes I think.

But without the 2nd part of the story it's a non-issue IMO, especially as there was no way Rossi could climb above 4th given the number of riders he had to pass. If all riders between him & the 3 top Spaniards had parked it on the grid until Rossi passed, that would have been an issue - other riders deliberately affecting the championship rather than riding their own races.

If MM had let both championship contenders by, that would have been fine. Or fought hard with both. That's the only reason some people see it as a violation of sporting principles AFAIU.

I have made no comment on this thread previously because I had no particular problem with Petrucci letting him by, although he was not imo obliged to do so, the crux of the issue with MM is whether he deliberately ran wide to let Lorenzo by, which is very much an assumption. He ran wide early in races many times in the 2015 season, sometimes with no other rider in his immediate vicinity, including as recently as the previous race at PI.

I do have a real problem with Rossi's attitude which seemed to pre-date even the PI race if we are to believe reports of him confronting Dani Pedrosa about beating him in a race prior to PI. As I have said previously, I would have been fine as a Lorenzo fan with the last 3 races being match races between VR and JL if Rossi had been happy to give up the points lead he had obtained when everyone was racing Jorge.

moto vudu · Dec 18, 2015

Lol @ "now we have proof someone helped Rossi". Anyone who isn't blind could see Petrucci let Rossi pass. It's not an issue because it had no bearing on the outcome of the race. Now get Marc to admit he helped Lorenzo and we'll have something good to discuss during the off-season.

Gaz · Dec 18, 2015

moto vudu said:
Lol @ "now we have proof someone helped Rossi". Anyone who isn't blind could see Petrucci let Rossi pass. It's not an issue because it had no bearing on the outcome of the race. Now get Marc to admit he helped Lorenzo and we'll have something good to discuss during the off-season.

Being fair Moto, it is all more an attempt to make the point that despite commentary that 'no rider should help another to win the world championship' when the boot is on the other foot, there are no complaints registered.

VR and many of the fans made the point that MM should not have tried to influence the championship and should have just 'raced his own race', but here we have Petrucci saying that he 'did not race his own race' and by his moving out of the way, did he not influence the championship.

Truth be told (and with respects to Petrucci), VR would have been past anyway so his moving out of the way had minimal impact on the end result and may well have helped Smith to a better result as it allowed him to remain with VR.

As for the bolded, I suspect that there is as much chance of tht happening as there is of Valentino Rossi admitting he was wrong and apologising to MM, JL and the sport as a whole for what had occurred over the last few races.

moto vudu · Dec 18, 2015

Gaz said:
Being fair Moto, it is all more an attempt to make the point that despite commentary that 'no rider should help another to win the world championship' when the boot is on the other foot, there are no complaints registered.

VR and many of the fans made the point that MM should not have tried to influence the championship and should have just 'raced his own race', but here we have Petrucci saying that he 'did not race his own race' and by his moving out of the way, did he not influence the championship.

Truth be told (and with respects to Petrucci), VR would have been past anyway so his moving out of the way had minimal impact on the end result and may well have helped Smith to a better result as it allowed him to remain with VR.

As for the bolded, I suspect that there is as much chance of tht happening as there is of Valentino Rossi admitting he was wrong and apologising to MM, JL and the sport as a whole for what had occurred over the last few races.

I understand your points, but there's a big difference between Petrucci letting Rossi pass and MM letting Lorenzo pass only to put up the biggest dog fight of the season when Rossi caught up to him. That's a completely different level of influencing the championship.

michaelm · Dec 18, 2015

moto vudu said:
I understand your points, but there's a big difference between Petrucci letting Rossi pass and MM letting Lorenzo pass only to put up the biggest dog fight of the season when Rossi caught up to him. That's a completely different level of influencing the championship.

Several absolute assumptions here, firstly that MM let Lorenzo past, then that MM had the pace to go faster than he did rather than the riders/bikes having different strengths, and presumably also that Rossi had the pace to go with Pedrosa and JL if he had managed a pass.

Valentino had simple options for winning the championship, those of being fast enough to beat Lorenzo or even MM in the last 3 races. He wasn't fast enough for those races. All else including any tarring and feathering of MM is rather irrelevant.

Gaz · Dec 18, 2015

moto vudu said:
I understand your points, but there's a big difference between Petrucci letting Rossi pass and MM letting Lorenzo pass only to put up the biggest dog fight of the season when Rossi caught up to him. That's a completely different level of influencing the championship.

The point however is valid

If it is influencing the championship by fighting (or allegedly fighting) with a contender, is it not influencing the championship when you gift that same championship rider a position or points?

To me, it is the same - both may be influencing the title, although to quote Mick Doohan - 'For somebody to be in the title hunt to expect other people not to get in the mix is wrong, the wrong perception to start with'

Survce - "It's all ........". Mick Doohan on the 2015 MotoGP season. | Superbike Magazine

He does go further and openly discusses Valencia

michaelm · Dec 18, 2015

Gaz said:
The point however is valid

If it is influencing the championship by fighting (or allegedly fighting) with a contender, is it not influencing the championship when you gift that same championship rider a position or points?

To me, it is the same - both may be influencing the title, although to quote Mick Doohan - 'For somebody to be in the title hunt to expect other people not to get in the mix is wrong, the wrong perception to start with'

Survce - "It's all ........". Mick Doohan on the 2015 MotoGP season. | Superbike Magazine

He does go further and openly discusses Valencia

Also says MM could have avoided the contact at Sepang which I will take on board coming from him; I think MM probably could have avoided the contact as well but wasn't responsible for being in a position which required him to do so.

paparazzo · Dec 19, 2015

Oh look, it's Capt. Obvious starting another Rossi bash thread.

Revelation 1. Petrucci let him through...Pirro also let him through. Dovi also possibly let him through.

Revelation 2. Petrucci, Pirro and Dovi would have been passed anyway after an extra lap.

Revelation 3. Even with an extra lap required to pass then...Valentinoi would have finished.....in 4th place.

GTFO

#22 · Dec 19, 2015

And Lorenzo would have won the race regardless...GTFO

.

povol · Dec 19, 2015

moto vudu said:
Lol @ "now we have proof someone helped Rossi". Anyone who isn't blind could see Petrucci let Rossi pass. It's not an issue because it had no bearing on the outcome of the race. Now get Marc to admit he helped Lorenzo and we'll have something good to discuss during the off-season.

And anyone who isnt blind could see that Rossi should have been instantly black flagged at Sepang. RD wanting to investigate the incident and talk to the riders was ......... It was obvious to anyone who could see that Rossi committed a premeditated illegal attack on a fellow rider but Dorna did everything in their power to keep Rossi's title hopes alive.

elptxjc · Dec 19, 2015

yamaka46 said:
If MM had let both championship contenders by, that would have been fine.

moto vudu said:
That's a completely different level of influencing the championship

It's absolutely ridiculous to think it's okay to let championship contenders pass by, or that some riders are not going to 'influence' the championship. If that was the case, anybody with more than 5 points on the last race should always win, because everybody have to just move over and let the 2 contenders to the front. It's like saying it's okay to steal from a rich buy, but not from a poor one. Like the saying goes: 'everything is valid on racing if not illegal'. If you cross that line, like stupid Rossi did, you lose. Who would have thought the immature kid could own the old fart 'mature' rider. And he was getting away with everything up to that point, including punting and crashing Marquez early on with an obviously non-racing move that started the whole saga between them. Marquez was simply playing Rossi's game, and Rossi lost at the end. I'm for one glad somebody taught him a lesson. But also don't want to ever see that again, including FIM turning a blind eye because of ratings.

michaelm · Dec 19, 2015

elptxjc said:
It's absolutely ridiculous to think it's okay to let championship contenders pass by, or that some riders are not going to 'influence' the championship. If that was the case, anybody with more than 5 points on the last race should always win, because everybody have to just move over and let the 2 contenders to the front. It's like saying it's okay to steal from a rich buy, but not from a poor one. Like the saying goes: 'everything is valid on racing if not illegal'. If you cross that line, like stupid Rossi did, you lose. Who would have thought the immature kid could own the old fart 'mature' rider. And he was getting away with everything up to that point, including punting and crashing Marquez early on with an obviously non-racing move that started the whole saga between them. Marquez was simply playing Rossi's game, and Rossi lost at the end. I'm for one glad somebody taught him a lesson. But also don't want to ever see that again, including FIM turning a blind eye because of ratings.

Absolutely spot on. Since as Jumkie says there are only 4 contenders to start with, the logical end point of this nonsensical line of reasoning is for all but the factory Honda and Yamaha bikes to stay parked in pit lane, where this year the 2nd HRC bike could have joined them after Dani missed those races.

Thank you for succinctly making the basic point in the whole saga, which as you say which was Rossi "punting and crashing Marquez early on with an obvious non-racing move" as you say.

michaelm · Dec 19, 2015

paparazzo said:
Oh look, it's Capt. Obvious starting another Rossi bash thread.

Revelation 1. Petrucci let him through...Pirro also let him through. Dovi also possibly let him through.

Revelation 2. Petrucci, Pirro and Dovi would have been passed anyway after an extra lap.

Revelation 3. Even with an extra lap required to pass then...Valentinoi would have finished.....in 4th place.

GTFO

Revelation 4. If Rossi had not punted MM at Sepang and not received a penalty, he still would have finished 4th at Valencia and more than likely at Sepang as well, and lost the championship by 8 points rather than 5.

As David Emmett said, his problem was that he needed to subcontract beating Lorenzo to MM, yet abused him for actually doing so at PI, which is why some including David Emmett have called that a momentary lapse of reason.

Valentino also lost the championship because Iannone beat him at PI and Pedrosa beat him in 4 late season races other than PI; whatever MM did at Sepang or Valencia would have been irrelevant had VR not lost those points to the other two.

moto vudu · Dec 19, 2015

povol said:
And anyone who isnt blind could see that Rossi should have been instantly black flagged at Sepang. RD wanting to investigate the incident and talk to the riders was ......... It was obvious to anyone who could see that Rossi committed a premeditated illegal attack on a fellow rider but Dorna did everything in their power to keep Rossi's title hopes alive.

Premeditated illegal attack? Lol, you're really reaching on that one. You think before the race Rossi was sitting with his team planning on running Marc wide? Exactly how much was premeditated? IMO, Rossi never attacked Marc at all... he slowed and ran him close to the edge of the track. After that Marc made a decision to turn into Rossi and made contact. Marc simply got the worse of that contact. Rossi was punished for his role in the incident so as far as I'm concerned it's a dead issue.

Rossi is in good shape going into 2016. For the first half of last season he really struggled with his qualifying, but his race pace was excellent. Towards of the of the season he finally started to qualify better. If Rossi can qualify well next year, I like his chances to challenge for the title again.

moto vudu · Dec 19, 2015

elptxjc said:
It's absolutely ridiculous to think it's okay to let championship contenders pass by, or that some riders are not going to 'influence' the championship. If that was the case, anybody with more than 5 points on the last race should always win, because everybody have to just move over and let the 2 contenders to the front. It's like saying it's okay to steal from a rich buy, but not from a poor one. Like the saying goes: 'everything is valid on racing if not illegal'. If you cross that line, like stupid Rossi did, you lose. Who would have thought the immature kid could own the old fart 'mature' rider. And he was getting away with everything up to that point, including punting and crashing Marquez early on with an obviously non-racing move that started the whole saga between them. Marquez was simply playing Rossi's game, and Rossi lost at the end. I'm for one glad somebody taught him a lesson. But also don't want to ever see that again, including FIM turning a blind eye because of ratings.

It's absolutely ridiculous to think it's okay for a non-championship contender to set his sights on a championship contender to do nothing more than attempt to disrupt his race pace. We're not talking about simply racing a championship contender, but purposely attempting to slow him down to give advantage to another rival.

Marc lost at the end was well. He is no longer MotoGP champion. After all his antics during the season, he wasn't good enough to defend the crown. I'm happy with that.

Search

Search

Petrucci admits to letting Rossi by at Valencia

JPSLotus

#22

JPSLotus

elptxjc

yamaka46

michaelm

moto vudu

Gaz

moto vudu

michaelm

Gaz

michaelm

paparazzo

#22

povol

elptxjc

michaelm

michaelm

moto vudu

moto vudu

Similar threads

Recent Discussions