MotoGP Americas: Rossi: This isn't Moto2, Zarco,

The 38-year-old, who eventually finished runner-up behind Marquez, felt a penalty was 'not right' given he didn't trigger the incident. But while Rossi could also accept the punishment purely in terms of gaining time, he had strong feelings on the cause of the incident itself, stating 'the problem is Zarco'. 

“For me it is not right because I have two choices. We do like this, or we touch and we crash. But I hear the penalty is for gaining advantage and 0.3 is OK, but for me the problem is not Race Direction, the problem is Zarco,” Rossi said. 

“He is always very fast and rides the bike very well, he has great potential, but this is not Moto2 and if you want to overtake you have to overtake in another way. He always arrives too much in the line and for me, he has to stay more quiet.” 

Rossi was unaware of the penalty during the race and revealed afterwards that his team decided against putting the information on his pit board because he had already opened a big enough gap over Dani Pedrosa by the final laps. 

“It's always very difficult because at the end we don't have any communication and you have to see just on the board. My team wait and when I overtook Dani, I was able to take a good gap in the first two sectors – one second – so they say it is not important. 

“If you put on the board 'penalty, 0.3', maybe when I pass I see 'penalty 3' and maybe it is seconds or tenths, and I push at the maximum on the last lap for take more advantage and I can do some mistakes, so for me they make the right decision.” 

In the post-race press conference, race winner Marquez said aggressive riding was part and parcel of MotoGP. 

“The penalty, 0.3 or 0.2, is not much. Of course I see the action and it was aggressive, but in the end, and in the beginning, everybody is pushing 100 per-cent. I'm an aggressive rider, Valentino is an aggressive rider and we also overtake in the past very strong, and we will overtake in the future really strong,” said Marquez. 

“So if you're aggressive and you overtake strong, you need to understand that the other riders are aggressive and it's always like this – it's racing. Yes it was tight and aggressive, but he didn't gain nothing, Valentino.” 

Pedrosa was made aware that Rossi had picked up a penalty via his pit board. But the Repsol Honda rider said he was not in a position to push any harder after his tyres went off and admitted the exact nature of the 'penalty' was also unclear to him. 

“I only saw on the board 'penalty' but anyway at that time I couldn't really do anything else because I was fighting with my tyre, but 0.3 penalty I don't think it is necessary to know unless I was there fighting for last lap attack to the last corner. 

“I only saw penalty and I didn't know which type of penalty it was: if it was ten seconds or one position, so it was like it was. But communication: I think if you want to communicate with the board, you can, but sometimes you don't see exactly what is showing on the board.” 

Source: http://crash.net

RACE:

1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 43m 58.770s
2. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 44m 1.839s
3. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 44m 3.882s
4. Cal Crutchlow GBR LCR Honda (RC213V) 44m 6.408s
5. Johann Zarco FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 44m 6.727s
6. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP17) 44m 12.828s
7. Andrea Iannone ITA Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 44m 14.261s
8. Danilo Petrucci ITA Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP17) 44m 15.542s
9. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP17) 44m 16.749s
10. Jack Miller AUS Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) 44m 17.264s
11. Jonas Folger GER Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 44m 17.673s
12. Scott Redding GBR Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP16) 44m 27.505s
13. Tito Rabat ESP Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) 44m 28.811s
14. Hector Barbera ESP Reale Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP16) 44m 30.134s
15. Alvaro Bautista ESP Pull&Bear Aspar Team (Desmosedici GP16) 45m 5.317s
16. Bradley Smith GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) 45m 20.860s
17. Aleix Espargaro ESP Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) +2 laps
Sam Lowes GBR Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP)* DNF
Pol Espargaro ESP Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) DNF
Loris Baz FRA Reale Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP15) DNF
Maverick Viñales ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) DNF
Karel Abraham CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team (Desmosedici GP15) DNF

Riders' World Championship:

1. ^1 Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 56 points
2. ˅1 Maverick Viñales SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 50 points (-6) 
3. ^5 Marc Marquez SPA Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 38 points (-18) 
4. ˅1 Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP17) 30 points (-26) 
5. = Cal Crutchlow GBR LCR Honda (RC213V) 29 points (-27) 
6. ^4 Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 27 points (-29) 

7. ^4 Johann Zarco FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 22 points (-34) 
8. ˅2 Jonas Folger GER Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 21 points (-35) 
9. ˅5 Scott Redding GBR Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP16) 21 points (-35) 
10. ˅3 Jack Miller AUS Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) 21 points (-35) 
11. ^2 Danilo Petrucci ITA Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP17) 17 points (-39) 
12. ˅3 Alvaro Bautista SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team (Desmosedici GP16) 14 points (-42) 
13. ^5 Jorge Lorenzo SPA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP17) 12 points (-44) 
14. ˅2 Aleix Espargaro SPA Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 10 points (-46) 
15. #N/A Andrea Iannone ITA Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 9 points (-47) 
16. ˅2 Loris Baz FRA Reale Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP15) 9 points (-47) 
17. ˅2 Karel Abraham CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team (Desmosedici GP15) 8 points (-48) 
18. ^1 Tito Rabat SPA Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) 8 points (-48) 
19. ˅2 Hector Barbera SPA Reale Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP16) 8 points (-48) 
20. ˅4 Alex Rins SPA Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)* 7 points (-49) 
21. ˅1 Pol Espargaro SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) 2 points (-54) 
22. ˅1 Bradley Smith GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) 1 points (-55)