Physical Violence on Track

"French MotoGP pole starter, Casey Stoner, has been fined 5000 Euros by Race Direction for lashing out at Randy de Puniet during morning warm-up at Le Mans.



After almost hitting the back of a slow-moving de Puniet on a straight, Stoner gave the Frenchman a 'what are you doing?' punch on the shoulder as he pulled alongside.



The cruising de Puniet had looked back shortly before Stoner arrived, then moved to the right, straight into the path of the fast-moving Stoner.



de Puniet either didn't see Stoner, thought he was heading to his left or that he was far enough in front of the Australian.



Either way, Stoner clearly felt that de Puniet had acted dangerously, hence his anger, but Race Direction decided that taking physical action was a greater crime. de Puniet seems not to have been punished.



Despite the incident, Repsol Honda rider Stoner was fastest by half a second during the warm-up session and will be chasing his second victory of the season this afternoon."







I believe extreme measures need to be employed to curve this consistently appalling behavior from Stoner. With all the talk of dangerous riding and the focus on Sic, for me Stoner was by far the most dangerous man out on track at Le Mans.

Talpa said:

I believe extreme measures need to be employed to curve this consistently appalling behavior from Stoner. With all the talk of dangerous riding and the focus on Sic, for me Stoner was by far the most dangerous man out on track at Le Mans.

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Sic left room for Dani, watch the the replay with the vision form behind the riders. Sic is well away from the 'apex' leaving Dani room. Sure it was tight, but both riders were fighting for position and both went in to the corner trying to out brake each other.

IMO just an unfortunate racing incident.



Casey dangerous?? Maybe in your opinion, but Randy was way more dangerous just 'tooling' around adjusting his brake or clutch or what ever he was doing. Casey just gave him a reminder that it's a race track and MotoGP, not club racing.

Maybe on the 'world stage' Casey shouldn't have 'punched' Randy but it has made great publicity for MotoGP. So too has the "hard" riding from Sic.

Don't forget Sic and Dani weren't the only two to make contact with each other. Dovi & Jorge touched as well resulting in tyre marks on leathers!

All of this is due to the inaction of race control. They have failed to warn and punish riders for cruising on the race line which puts riders on hot laps in serious danger.

Race control in the past have failed in punishing unprofessional and violent behaviour with some riders. We have seen rider's kicking competitors bike's while on track, standing trackside during a live race to vent anger and frustration and now punching/pushing. This should have been addressed a long time ago by Butler. Now he has acted and i welcome the fine and think that should be the end of it. If the same rider behave's in this manner again then the punishment should be a lot more sevier.

i think the fine is fairly warranted too. it always seems to be CS who is having trouble with slower riders. The other quick guys dont seem to have any issues. I dont know what it is with him at the moment, but he is starting to look like a bit of a troublemaker.

The fine was more than warranted, but they do need to start looking at all this slowing on the racing line buisness too!

The video of the incident - http://www.streetfire.net/video/stoner-vs-de-puniet_2252637.htm











Gaz

Talpa said:

I believe extreme measures need to be employed to curve this consistently appalling behavior from Stoner.

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Stoner was fined and he also admitted his reaction was wrong. time to move on Talpa

Talpa said:

for me Stoner was by far the most dangerous man out on track at Le Mans.

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i have not heard any other rider say anything remotely similar to that. and that's all that matters.

Talpa said:

I believe extreme measures need to be employed to curve this consistently appalling behavior from Stoner. With all the talk of dangerous riding and the focus on Sic, for me Stoner was by far the most dangerous man out on track at Le Mans.

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I was waiting for you to rear your ugly head.



Yes Stoner should receive a lifetime ban for his actions against DePuniet and Rossi should have been rewarded with extra points for his brilliant Jerez pass....if only you had Paul Butlers job your life would be so much happier and you could instigate these measures at your own behest.



But unfortunately for you things like that don't actually happen anywhere except in Talpas alternate parallel universe and in reality Stoner is now on a Honda and over the next few years is going to make your life so ....... miserable that your head will probably explode

Mr Squiggle said:

I was waiting for you to rear your ugly head.



Yes Stoner should receive a lifetime ban for his actions against DePuniet and Rossi should have been rewarded with extra points for his brilliant Jerez pass....if only you had Paul Butlers job your life would be so much happier and you could instigate these measures at your own behest.



But unfortunately for you things like that don't actually happen anywhere except in Talpas alternate parallel universe and in reality Stoner is now on a Honda and over the next few years is going to make your life so ....... miserable that your head will probably explode

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Exactly, with Dani out of the way, and the perception of a struggling Lorenzo, Talps see's a resurrection in Rossi's title hopes if they can somehow get rid of that pesky guy who is thumping his ass to the tune of around 15 seconds per race. The tap on the shoulder has turned into a violent punch,assault, attempted murder, attempted vehicular homicide, that warrants an international manhunt. I say we call in SEAL TEAM SIX to exterminate this motor sports terrorist The fine is justified as a warning, time to move on. I know this race was in France, but you dont have to start acting French, Talpa.

povol said:

Exactly, with Dani out of the way, and the perception of a struggling Lorenzo, Talps see's a resurrection in Rossi's title hopes if they can somehow get rid of that pesky guy who is thumping his ass to the tune of around 15 seconds per race. The tap on the shoulder has turned into a violent punch,assault, attempted murder, attempted vehicular homicide, that warrants an international manhunt. I say we call in SEAL TEAM SIX to exterminate this motor sports terrorist

The fine is justified as a warning, time to move on. I know this race was in France, but you dont have to start acting French, Talpa.

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Yeah he is quite the fool isn't he....



Here is what RDP had to say about the matter....



"I'm sorry about what happened this morning with Casey. I was adjusting the brake, thinking that I had no one behind. Then, suddenly, I saw Casey coming behind me at full speed, I tried to leave the road to him, but unfortunately I went where he was pointing. I'm sorry and even if his reaction was not the best, for me it's all put in the past and I have nothing wrong against him.”



BTW - Congrats to Casey.....equals Schwantz to become 6th on the all time winners list.



He is now only 1 win behind Rossi since he joined the Premiere class and they have been competing together....and that was with 4 years riding the 800cc Ducati and one year on the satellite 990cc LCR Honda.

Double

Talpa hasn't gone far enough. Stoner should be publically hung, drawn and quartered for treason/disrespect for royalty and this should be made retrospective to 2007 when he first showed disrespect for said royalty by beating him. The need is even more urgent now because he is within 1 win of matching valentino for race wins in competition against each other.



It was a stupid thing for stoner to do and he fully deserves the fine which perhaps should have been larger. Whilst his action can in no way be condoned the real danger was not large, as opposed to actually hitting at 300kmh someone adjusting the clutch on the racing line, or rossi's pass at jerez and simoncelli's pass in this race, for which I personally would punish neither rider as they were both racing incidents. If talpa wants to take the race away from stoner they should take away rossi's last corner pass win against gibernau, and possibly the points from several races after if the punishment is to reflect actual danger and intent.



I think rossi is looking very good by the way, as the ducati can only improve and I am not sure yamaha has the will or the funds this year to give lorenzo the power upgrade he needs, or indeed if there is anything left in the current engine; this may surprise talpa but I also think it possible that yamaha are already missing rossi's development input . If the front-end instability problem of the ducati is solved when they get closer to true podium pace rossi is a very serious contender for this year's championship, not just close to favourite for next year's as I and others have already said.

my take is ... i can fully understand stoner being well pissed about that, randy was cruising then just decided to swerve out infront of stoner which could have been nasty, randy should pay more attention but also that was totally the wrong reaction from stoner, having a rant at randy would have been enough but jabbing him in the shoulder was a step to far me thinks.

jazkat said:

my take is ... i can fully understand stoner being well pissed about that, randy was cruising then just decided to swerve out infront of stoner which could have been nasty, randy should pay more attention but also that was totally the wrong reaction from stoner, having a rant at randy would have been enough but jabbing him in the shoulder was a step to far me thinks.

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+1 Exactly Jaz.



As I and many others have already stated Stoner has no justification for that OTT reaction even if RDP did do something quite dangerous. They have both apologised to each other and have subsequently moved on from this incident...unlike Talpa.

Talpa said:

I believe extreme measures need to be employed to curve this consistently appalling behavior from Stoner. With all the talk of dangerous riding and the focus on Sic, for me Stoner was by far the most dangerous man out on track at Le Mans.

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Men have been pussified enough for one century. A punch in the arm is no big deal. The governing body must act b/c they understand consciously or subconsciously that without officiating, men at play will soon be men at war. Basic ...-for-tat and politically correct optics for PR. It's too bad the officials don't understand the same necessity for officiating during the races.

jazkat said:

my take is ... i can fully understand stoner being well pissed about that, randy was cruising then just decided to swerve out infront of stoner which could have been nasty, randy should pay more attention but also that was totally the wrong reaction from stoner, having a rant at randy would have been enough but jabbing him in the shoulder was a step to far me thinks.

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Totally agree as I usually do with you Jaz.

Talpa having an anti Stoner rant? Wow I'd have never guessed.

Don't fall off your chairs here guys, but I'm getting the impression Talpa doesn't like Stoner & may even be biased against him.

Okay lads you can climb back on your chairs now.

mylexicon said:

Men have been pussified enough for one century. A punch in the arm is no big deal. The governing body must act b/c they understand consciously or subconsciously that without officiating, men at play will soon be men at war. Basic ...-for-tat and politically correct optics for PR. It's too bad the officials don't understand the same necessity for officiating during the races.

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Exactly. The officials have to act because he has escalated from gestures to physical contact, however feigned the punch may have been.

However I have seen no-one complain about his riding being unsafe in the real thing since 2007 or in 2007 for that matter, as opposed to some other riders in the field; he is probably among the most scrupulous about giving other riders room in races, and everyone including valentino seems to be happy to race closely with him, and as hard a charger as cal crutchlow sympathised with his concerns if not his action.

As reported elsewhere



Also pinched this comment from Gavin Emmett's twitter...........

Superb comment from CS27 about €5,000 fine.

"At least Race Direction made a decision, which is rare" !!













EDIT: And more



“That's 5,000 well spent – the Australian rider declared – because at least it means the Race Direction is taking some action. I'm OK with Randy De Puniet; we spoke during the meeting with Race Direction, and Randy apologized to me. He said it was his fault and asked Race Direction not to fine me. I was wrong to give him a punch, but imagine going at 200 Km/h and finding someone in front of you going 100 Km/h slower. I didn't have any room to go around, because there was a wall next to me. My heart was in my throat and I though I was going to get killed."



Source: http://gpone.com/index.php/en/news/35-in-evidenza/3720-stoner-i-5000-euro-meglio-spesi.html

















Gaz

bigbang said:

Stoner was fined and he also admitted his reaction was wrong. time to move on Talpa







i have not heard any other rider say anything remotely similar to that. and that's all that matters.

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But he was one of the only two riders punished this weekend for wreckless/dangerous action? Surely that means he is dangerous?

digger said:

it always seems to be CS who is having trouble with slower riders.

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So that would mean he has trouble with the whole grid