An absolutely classic MotoGP season has turned very sour following the highly public on-and-off track spat between multiple world champions Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez. The pair, who currently have no fewer than 13 titles between them, have locked horns since the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island and it peaked at the last race at Sepang, where Rossi deliberately forced Marquez wide, eventually ending the Spaniard’s race. Rossi has since been given three penalty points for his misconduct sending him to the back of the grid for the finale in Spain this weekend. Some will claim that it is far from a strong enough punishment, whilst others will claim that it is too strong. However, the Sepang clash and the war of words (mostly from Rossi’s side) will possibly leave a black mark against Rossi whenever people come to the ‘greatest of all time’ debate, as has been the case in the past in many different sports.
In the heat of a championship fight between Yamaha team mates Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, Marquez, who is unable to win the championship following a series of unforced errors this year, has been going all out to win races before the end of the year. Whilst Marquez and Rossi have come together on a few occasions this year such as at Assen, they seemed to retain a pretty respectable relationship. The fierce rivalry between Rossi and Marquez, the latter being 14 years younger, really peaked at Australia, where Rossi accused Marquez of interfering with the championship fight and helping his countryman, Lorenzo, in the process, although Marquez would go on to win the race by passing Lorenzo on the final lap of the race.
Since then, Rossi, who is seeking a staggering tenth World Championship, has hit out at Marquez, making very sly and somewhat surprising remarks against the Spaniard. Things were not eased at Malaysia, where after Marquez seemingly did not fight Lorenzo too hard, Marquez and Rossi fought hard just as they did at Phillip Island. It was a very exciting battle, and although Marquez fought very aggressively, nothing he did was outside of the rulebook. However, Rossi deliberately forcing Marquez off the track was outside of the rulebook. We now have a situation where Rossi must finish in second at Valencia from last on the grid to clinch the title provided Lorenzo wins the race. Lorenzo in all this has been very critical of his team mate, however he has denied that there is a ‘pact’ between himself and Marquez to help him win the title.
This whole saga has potentially tainted the status of the man who prior to Malaysia was often regarded as the ‘GOAT (Greatest of all Time)’ and that is incredibly sad to see. Under no circumstances is using your vehicle as a weapon acceptable and that sort of behaviour is what is usually brought up when discussing who the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time is, seeing as both Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher did just that. As great as Senna and Schumacher were, many will argue that somebody who uses their vehicle as a weapon to deliberately ruin the race of another could not be regarded as the greatest ever. I am sure that the case is similar in other sports where somebody pushed beyond the moral and regulatory limitations of what is acceptable. This is potentially the same case with Rossi, although time will only tell regarding that.
It is just a shame that a wonderful MotoGP season, which has provided more drama and excitement than any other series could only dream of having will end up being far more controversial than it should have been. As for Rossi, a truly exceptional, record-breaking career will now forever have a black mark against it, and that is a real shame to see for a rider so very popular around the world, and one of the biggest sports stars around.
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