‘I didn’t expect he wouldn’t race’ - Valentino Rossi reacts to Marco Bezzecchi ban

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi says he “didn’t expect” Marco Bezzecchi would receive a race ban at the Czech Grand Prix for striking a marshal.

The MotoGP paddock was rocked on Saturday night when the FIM stewards announced that championship leader Marco Bezzecchi was suspended from the rest of the Brno weekend after he struck a marshal.

The Aprilia rider crashed in the latter stages of the sprint on Saturday while running fifth, and twice hit a marshal after his RS-GP began revving while the trackside workers lifted his bike.

Bezzecchi will sit out Sunday’s grand prix, with Aprilia accepting the penalty after appealing it on Saturday night.

Ahead of the Czech Grand Prix, nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi gave his view on the incident to the MotoGP world feed.

“I think that Marco did a mistake, but, sincerely, I didn’t expect that he couldn’t race,” Rossi said.

“But it is like this.”

Bezzecchi went to the Turn 3 marshals post where he crashed on Saturday to apologise for his actions in an emotional exchange.

Ladislav, the marshal who was struck by Bezzecchi, told TNT Sport: “He was surely stressed, and I understood his situation: he crashed.

“So, I did my job, I went for the bike and I picked it up.

“I pressed the clutch and tried to pick it up because it was still on and the bike started rolling, so I wanted to put it back down and it revved up.

“He probably thought that I did it on purpose [but] it was a pure accident. Then, everyone saw what happened.”

Ladislav noted that he was “shocked” in the moment that it happened.

Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola shares Rossi’s surprise at Bezzecchi’s race ban, calling it “disproportionate” - though he did also condemn his rider’s actions.

“The reason why we appealed at the beginning was that we felt the disproportion from the action to the penalty according to what we saw in other cases, similar cases in the past,” Rivola said.

“But that's it. So now we look forward to Assen.”