Clearly you have not watched the full press conference. He was more serious about going off on social media haters than he was about the idea that Marc was playing spoiler. :blah:
The truth is clearly that it's a spanish conspiracy to generate more revenue for Dorna. Marquez is being paid under the table to keep the championship going until the last round to get viewers/subscribers up. Not only does this provide more revenue for dorna, but having a spanish world champion also makes it easier for the spanish cartels to smuggle drugs through lorenzo affiliates, in turn pumping more money over to dorna and spanish riders. This championship has been decided long ago through spanish black market economics. :rawk:
Strange, I watched the press conference and I found Rossi to be in deadly ernest. The fact that he had lap times with him and made the media rounds afterwards was also reported on. I in no way whatsoever think he is joking about Marquez. A joke normally comes with a smile. Any smile Rossi had never reached his eyes during that part of the discussion.
After watching the press conference, reading the report that booma posted, watching the race again and then watching the press conference again, holy shit, yes, he was serious! Apologies to you booma, I didn't want to believe this to be true but it is. He was also seriously calling out all the social media haters so I got that right, lol! This is going to be one hell of a race this weekend!
Excerpt from motomatters.com: (just another opinion I know, but one I respect - if not familiar with blog, I highly recommend it for followers of MotoGP.) "If anyone was in any doubt that Rossi was serious, when he spoke to the assembled Italian media, he went on to repeat and expand on his claims. To add weight to them, he produced a set of timesheets from the Phillip Island race, complete with his annotations. The entire transcript of what he said is up on the official MotoGP.com website, but it boils down to a number of claims: that Márquez clearly had the pace to beat everyone, but held back to hold up Rossi and Iannone, while allowing Lorenzo to escape; that Márquez kept overtaking him on the straight, knowing he would struggle against the Ducati of Iannone; and that Márquez was doing this on purpose to spite Rossi."
I kinda don't like this. I've been a huge Rossi fan and this morning when I first watched the press conference, it seemed like he was taking a light hearted poke at Marc and everyone was having a laugh but after reading the full report and rewatching everything, no, he meant to make a public attack. Almost seems like this was set up beforehand actually and I don't like this behavior. This is not the kind of behavior I expect from Rossi and I am taken aback by it. "This is racing" is one of Rossi's main points whenever he is accused of doing something sketchy, that's that and I agree. This accusation against Marc has changed the way I look at him. I guess I'm saying I've lost some respect for him. Still want to see him win the championship but definitely don't look up to him as much now. I feel embarrassed that I was defending him earlier on this thread. Go Rossi!?!?!?
Well, put yourself in Rossi's shoes. A 10th world title (and probably his last chance) hangs in the balance. If Marquez was in fact sandbagging, then Rossi was right to call him out on it. Otherwise, it could effect the outcome of the championship. I give him credit for having the cajones to call him out on a world stage. Again, I think Rossi is a straight shooter, I've seen some sketchy things done to him during races and he never says anything about it. If he decided to bring it up, there must be something going on. Where there's smoke there's fire.... Either way, I'd say a new rivalry has been spawned.
I fundamentally agree that if in fact Marc was sandbagging that race direction should have something to say about it. I wait in anticipation, lol! Just my own opinion, I think Marc was trying to make sure he didn't take anybody out since he claimed that he was feeling the front giving and backed off to cool down the tire. During the race, I was on the edge of my seat saying things like please don't crash and take anybody with you Marc! Of course, I have no idea of what the real truth is but I'm disappointed with Rossi going on a media campaign to call him out. I thought it was harsh and I'm sure that Rossi does believe that Marc was sandbagging but he should have talked with Marc about it directly rather than this. Or, maybe it's all just sensational hype and we're all a bunch of suckers for it. It certainly is going to be a nail biter this weekend and I do want Rossi to win the championship this year and want it to be a fair fight. Marc is within his rights to try to win as much as any rider no matter what the championship battle is so I don't think he was sabotaging Rossi. Again, I don't know, I'm only guessing.
Sounds like mind games to me...the only way for Marquez to prove Rossi wrong is to beat Lorenzo...and guess who benefits from that? It appears that Rossi currently isn't able to beat Lorenzo on dry pavement so what is the next best thing? Make sure that the point difference for the race stays as small as possible. If Marquez would have wanted to help Lorenzo, he would not have overtaken him on the last lap...Lorenzo's response to the question if he felt Marquez had helped him pretty much says it all: Yeah, mainly on the last lap
There are two interesting points that were brought up when my roommate and I were discussing this last night. 1. Marc could have been holding back just to save tire. His pace was capable of being much faster than any of the other top 4 guys he was with. He could have been relaxing knowing that anytime he could slip right past JLo and take the race. 2. Regardless of how serious Rossi is, Marc definitely got in the way. If anything, I can see Rossi calling out Marc just to get him riled up. NO SPOILER but I thought this could be true with how hard Marc came out at the beginning of FP1. Maybe Rossi is ruffling his feathers so that he comes out hot on Sunday and stays out of his way. Edit: Oops ASM, typed before I read everything. I agree with you. I think Rossi wants to rile up Marc to get him in front of JLo.
Rossi was just mad because he finished 4th. His mind games will have no affect on MM. Rossi is just whining.
Well, this would all be mute if Rossi could just find a way to go faster than everyone else. Lorenzo is fast on the yamaha, Rossi needs to be faster...
My opinion is that Vale truly thinks Marc is toying with Rossi's chance to take the championship. And I can completely see Marc deliberately keeping the race close. Now as far as what Marc did on the race, I do believe he extended the gap between Lorenzo and Rossi/Ianone and possibly on purpose so he wouldnt have to worry about them. But at the same time I think Marc end's vision was to win that race regardless.
^ Agree. I've always been impressed with his level of class and sportsmanship... rarely seen in spectator sports. If he was being petty about this issue, it would be very uncharacteristic for him, in my opinion. That said... watching these four competitors 'going at it' leaves me slack-jawed. The talent on display is incomprehensible to me. :thumb: