Rossi will now have to ride the race of his life if he’s to take an historic 10th world title.
Valentino Rossi’s final appeal against the three point penalty and subsequent demotion to the back of the grid following his clash with Marc Marquez at the Malaysian MotoGP has been rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Rossi appealed to the court for either a reduction in the three point penalty or a “stay of execution”, meaning a delay in the CAS decision that, if the court still ruled in favor of Race Direction, meant Rossi would serve his back of the grid penalty sometime next season.
The CAS ruling now means Rossi will have to start at the back of the grid at the title deciding Valencia MotoGP this weekend. Rossi leads the championship by seven points over teammate Jorge Lorenzo and must finish directly behind Lorenzo if the Spaniard finishes either first or second. Should Lorenzo finishes third, Rossi can afford to take sixth place and still win the title.
Jorge Lorenzo’s title chances just got a huge boost following the CAS decision.
The below is a release from the Court of Arbitration for Sport:
“The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed Valentino Rossi’s request to stay the execution of the decision issued by the FIM Stewards on 25 October 2015.
“Accordingly, the decision of the FIM Stewards to impose 3 penalty points on Valentino Rossi’s record following an incident with Marc Marquez during the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix race held on 25 October 2015 stands and Valentino Rossi will commence the next (and last) event of the season, to be held in Valencia/Spain on 6-8 November 2015, from the last grid position.
“After the race in Malaysia, the FIM Race Direction found that Valentino Rossi had deliberately run wide in order to force Marc Marquez off line, resulting in contact causing Marquez to crash out of the race. For this breach of the FIM regulations, the FIM Race Direction imposed 3 penalty points on the rider’s record, a sanction confirmed later by the FIM Stewards. Since Valentino Rossi already has 1 penalty point from an earlier incident this year, this decision brings him to a total of 4 penalty points. On the basis of the FIM Regulations, a rider with 4 penalty points must start the next race from last grid position.
“This request for a stay was filed at CAS on 29 October 2015 by Valentino Rossi together with his appeal to have the FIM Steward’s decision regarding the 3 point penalty annulled or at least reduced. The CAS Arbitrator, appointed by mutual agreement of the parties (Prof. Ulrich Haas/Germany), heard the representatives of Mr Rossi and FIM yesterday at the CAS office in Lausanne in order to rule exclusively on the urgent request for a stay to determine whether or not Valentino Rossi should start from last grid position in Valencia. The CAS Arbitrator found that the conditions to grant the stay were not met, which means that the sanction imposed by FIM will have to be served at the next Grand Prix in Valencia.
“On 2 November 2015, Jorge Lorenzo filed a Request for Intervention in order to be able to participate in this CAS arbitration but such request was denied. However, the CAS Arbitrator, after consultation with the parties, allowed the filing of a written statement by counsel for Jorge Lorenzo.
“The arbitration procedure is still in progress and a final decision on the merits will be rendered at a later stage.”
