Well spotted Loz, as bike journos they are both capable of giving a balanced view to what began as an emotive discussion and soon escalated into an ugly slanging match worldwide.
I can't help feeling that the genesis of this incident should have been nipped in the bud years before by a senior race official (or against a pit garage wall by an aggrieved competitor) when Marquez was allowed carte blanche on his way up the ranks of the support categories to ride with excessive vigour, contact and disregard for fellow riders. He should have been straightened out years ago : had this happened, the Sepang dust-up need never have occurred.
However he is guilty of no more here than engaging in a spirited scrap, the lack of which is bemoaned race after race by myopic fringe dwellers who claim GP racing is "boring". Without dwelling on the causes and shortcomings of that viewpoint, racing is racing. And, as others including Rossi and Lorenzo have demonstrated plenty of times without sanction, rubbing is racing. Those who have quickly jumped on the bandwagon that Marquez was "holding Rossi up" are overlooking the fact that their lap times blew out by no more than a second a lap compared to Pedrosa, whizzing away unimpeded at the front, pretty reasonable considering the amount of passing and repassing going on.
I doubt Rossi's kick was intentional, and I think Marquez could have neutralised the clash by braking short, turning inside Rossi and squirting away....but his incredulity at what was unfolding, being brake-tested, eyeballed and ridden to the outside kerb DURING A GP initiated a couple of irrational moves, including trying to finally turn in and overbalancing onto Rossi, causing the fall. Both have some degree of blame, but race direction's view that Rossi instigated a crash can't be denied. What I dislike is that the penalties applied should be relevant to that race alone, and it smacks of the shortcomings of the farcical F1 administration that the grid penalty should be applied to the next meeting. Ridiculous.
Finally with Rossi threatening to boycott the race at Valencia, that won't be happening for all sorts of commercial reasons. It's certainly the first time I can recall a competitor going into a final round of a world championship with a 7 point LEAD and offering to not ride. Lots can happen : Lorenzo could crash in practice and be injured, the bike could go pop, Rossi could get his finger out, get a good start and be in the top 10 by the end of lap 1, it could rain, all sorts of possibilities exist. And it wouldn't be outside the scope of the Rossi fantasy story his yellow-clad rabid supporters feed off for him to get up behind Lorenzo and win the damn title anyway. Certainly got to give it a red-hot crack.
One thing's for sure....we'll be watching.....
