He had begun on the eve of practice.
The alleged kick came after the pair had been fiercely engaged, changing place countless times, with a frustrated Rossi gesturing angrily to underline the appearance of deliberate delaying tactics by Marquez.

On lap seven of 20, as they entered a fast right-hander, Rossi on the inside slowed markedly, pushing Marquez to the outside of the track.
There was contact, and Marquez crashed out of a sixth race this year.

Race Direction waited until after the race to review the incident, and punished Rossi with three penalty points. The end result is that he will start the final GP at Valencia from the back row of the grid.

Ironically, this was his 329th GP start, putting him one ahead of the previous record holder Loris Capirossi.

Afterwards, Marquez denied he had deliberately slowed Rossi, simply battling for position, and he was crystal clear in his accusation.

He’d been surprised when Rossi had turned twice to look at him, but “I did not expect him to take off his leg and push my handlebar and front brake.

“For me it doesn’t matter if you are Valentino or another rider – with this type of action it shows you are out of control. It could be because of the title pressure on Rossi,” he said, but he pledged that this personal battle “can’t go on any further”.

rossi-loses-img1

Rossi firmly denied that he had kicked out or even deliberately caused the crash, pronouncing himself “very disappointed” with the penalty points, which he officially protested.

“I did not kick him,” he said. He looked at the images with Race Direction, and said the helicopter view gave the lie to the side-on appearance of a kick.

“From the helicopter, it is quite clear that I go wide. I don’t want to say I did a normal corner – I wanted to go to him, slow down, and make him lose time. It is the only thing I could do, because in every braking he overtook me, slowed a lot in the corners, and didn’t open the throttle in the straights.

“When I slow down, slow down, slow down and I go to cut his line, we touch. He touched me with the handlebar on my left leg, and it is for that reason he crashed.

“You can see frame-by-frame that when I lose the foot on the footpeg Marquez is already down, he has already crashed.”

Results: MotoGP, Sepang, Sunday, October 25, 2015

Pos. Points Num. Rider Nation Team Bike Km/h Time/Gap
1 25 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 163.7 40’37.691
2 20 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 163.4 +3.612
3 16 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 162.8 +13.724
4 13 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 162.1 +23.995
5 11 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda Honda 161.8 +28.721
6 10 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 161.3 +36.372
7 9 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 161.1 +39.290
8 8 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 161.1 +39.436
9 7 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 160.9 +42.462
10 6 6 Stefan BRADL GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 160.7 +44.601
11 5 45 Scott REDDING GBR EG 0,0 Marc VDS Suzuki 160.5 +47.690
12 4 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 160.2 +52.112
13 3 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 160.2 +52.360
14 2 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 160.1 +53.619
15 1 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 160.1 +53.631
16 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 159.6 +1’01.431
17 43 Jack MILLER AUS LCR Honda Honda 159.6 +1’02.828
18 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Ducati 159.4 +1’05.075
19 50 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 159.1 +1’09.877
20 13 Anthony WEST AUS AB Motoracing Honda 158.2 +1’24.749
Not Classified
4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 162.1 10 Laps
93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 156.1 13 Laps
76 Loris BAZ FRA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 132.6 18 Laps
29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Ducati Team Ducati 155.6 19 Laps
Not Finished 1st lap
55 Damian CUDLIN AUS E-Motion IodaRacing Team ART 0 Lap