SHUHEI Nakamoto, HRC Executive Vice President, has shared his views on the incident between Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi at Sepang during a Q&A with HRC.
Honda Racing Corporation sat down with Nakamoto to discuss the incident between their own rider Marquez and Movistar Yamaha’s Rossi in the hope of ending speculation and assumptions before the final round of the season.
HRC firstly laid out the facts of the events which occurred previous to the Sepang clash:
– Marc Marquez won the Australian GP, overtaking Jorge Lorenzo on the last lap, and therefore taking away 5 points from him in the championship.
– On the Thursday prior to the Malaysian GP in the pre-event press conference, Valentino Rossi accused Marc of racing against him in Phillip Island to help Jorge Lorenzo.
– In the Malaysian GP, Rossi intentionally pushed Marc out of the racing line which caused him to crash. Race direction gave him a penalty for this action, confirmed by the FIM.
‘To speak about assumptions would only increase the negative atmosphere we are facing in this moment, but will not change the reality of what happened,' concluded HRC.
Following HRC’s admissions, Nakamoto explained: ‘I know Marc well. He is a good guy, with strong and honest values. Marc was just trying to defend his position, as any rider would do, and we believe him 100%.
‘We would like to underline that Marc has been subject to an accusation with no evidence, after the Phillip Island race. Clearly there are no grounds to support that he wanted to help any rider in the championship battle, considering he pushed to win the race and did so.’
Nakamoto insists that Rossi pushed Marquez towards the outside of the track, leaving him with no other option than to run wide.
‘The data from Marc’s bike shows that even though he was picking up the bike trying to avoid contact with Valentino, his front brake lever suddenly received an impact that locked the front tyre, which is the reason for his crash,’ confirmed Nakamoto.
‘We believe that this pressure was a result of Rossi’s kick. The data acquisition from Marc’s bike is available if anybody from Dorna, the FIM or media want to check.
‘We hope that Valentino will think it over and understand his mistake.’
Since this Q&A was released by HRC, Movistar Yamaha have released their own statement regarding this particular interview.
