Race Director explains Rossi penalty
MotoGP Race Director Mike Webb has explained why Valentino Rossi was given a 0.3s penalty in Sunday's Austin race.
A lunge from behind by Johann Zarco caused Rossi to straight-line one of the S-curves. The Italian re-joined still in third place, but with a slightly bigger advantage over Zarco and closer to Marc Marquez ahead of him.
Crucially, once back on track, Rossi did not back off and give up the time gained.
MotoGP Race Director Mike Webb said: "You can't gain an advantage by leaving the track. There was clearly an advantage because he got closer to Marquez. So we negated that advantage.
"But on the other side, [Rossi] left the track involuntarily. Meaning he was forced off by another rider. If somebody went off deliberately and gained an advantage, the penalty would normally be much more than the time they gained.
"In this case, it was clearly not his fault for going off track. But he also has an obligation to not gain an advantage out of that circumstance.
It didn't matter in the end but should Rossi have been given the (0.3s) penalty for gaining time after this incident with Zarco? #AmericasGP pic.twitter.com/7koycsoo9n-- Crash.net MotoGP (@crash_motogp) April 23, 2017
"Later in the race, Lorenzo was forced off in more-or-less the same place. He did not gain an advantage, so nothing happened.
"To be fair to all the riders, having seen an advantage gained - for whatever reason - we have to take away that advantage. The normal penalty is for the rider to go back one place. For us that was out of the question because [Rossi] was forced off track.
"So all we wanted was to make sure the time advantage he gained was given back."
The penalty, to be applied at the end of the race, would only have been significant if Rossi was less than 0.3s ahead of another competitor as he crossed the finish line.
Ultimately, Rossi claimed second place by a margin of over two-seconds from Dani Pedrosa.
"[A 0.3s penalty sounds] ridiculous but the reason it took a while to give the penalty was because I was waiting for confirmation from Time Keeping of the difference in his sector time. That was the basis of the 0.3s penalty. He could have done that himself by closing the gas, he didn't, so we did it for him."
After the race, Rossi said of his penlaty "0.3 is OK. For me the problem is not Race Direction, the problem is Zarco."
The 38-year-old now leads the world championship by six points after team-mate Maverick Vinales fell early in the race, which was won by Marc Marquez. Zarco finished fifth.
