World motorcycling superstar Valentino Rossi said a rival’s stray bike, traveling at about 300kph, almost “killed me” in a horrifying near-miss at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The 41-year-old Italian, a nine-time world champion, was left badly shaken after Franco Morbidelli’s Yamaha flew across the track just centimeters in front of him.
Morbidelli and the Ducati of Johann Zarco had collided just seconds before the riders slipped through turn four at Spielberg on lap eight of the race. Both men were unseated.
Photo: AFP
Zarco’s freewheeling Ducati also came desperately close to hitting Rossi, as well as his Yamaha factory teammate Maverick Vinales, who was just ahead of him.
“Morbidelli’s bike nearly killed me,” Rossi said. “Even Zarco’s Ducati passed a few meters over me, it was a very dangerous moment.”
Incredibly, Rossi managed to compose himself and, after the race was restarted, came home in fifth place.
“I was so scared. I am shaken, resuming the race was tough. I took the biggest risk of my career,” Rossi told Sky Italia.
“I saw a shadow, I thought it was the helicopter from above, sometimes it happens during the race that the helicopter passes over and casts a shadow. Instead, two bullets arrived,” he said. “The saint of motorcyclists today did a really great job, it was a very dangerous thing.”
Morbidelli, possibly a teammate of Rossi’s next season at the Yamaha satellite team, did not mince his words.
“Zarco is almost a murderer,” Morbidelli told Sky Sport Italia. “Braking like this at 300kph means having little love for yourself or for those you are racing against.”
“I hope this major incident makes Zarco think. It was really dangerous for me, him, for Rossi and Vinales who were up front and saw a bike coming at them at 280 per hour,” he said.
Rossi insisted that too many MotoGP riders take too many risks and fail to understand that “our bikes, at these speeds, are bullets.”
“We’re competing in a very dangerous sport, you have to have respect for those who run on the track with you,” added Rossi after a race won for the second year in succession by Andrea Dovizioso on a factory Ducati.
“Zarco is not new to these things, what happened is very clear: Zarco overtook Morbidelli on the straight and then didn’t want to be overtaken by Franco, so he specifically went to brake in front of him, but at 300kph, being a MotoGP, Morbidelli was unable to do anything. Zarco braked in front of him, Franco couldn’t do anything,” Rossi said.
Zarco, the 30-year-old French rider, said he was unsure what caused the crash.
However, he claimed he was innocent of any wrongdoing.
“I feel like Morbidelli’s bike pushed me. I was able to overtake him in the straight line, I was already well ahead and, when braking, I swerved to the right and that’s where we hit,” he said.
“It was not a maneuver done on purpose, and I explained it to Franco and Valentino, but seeing the two motorcycles completely destroyed was scary,” he said. “We must have been at 270kph at the time of the accident.”
FRUSTRATION: Alcaraz made several unforced errors over four sets against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, who had never made it past the third round in a major competition Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the fourth round of the French Open after laboring past Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the Friday night session. The second-seeded Spaniard had never before played Dzumhur, a 33-year-old Bosnian who had never been past the third round at any major tournament. “I suffered quite a lot today,” Alcaraz said. “The first two sets was under control, then he started to play more deeply and more aggressively. It was really difficult for me.” Dzumhur hurt his left knee in a fall in the second round, and had treatment on Friday on his right leg during the
‘DREAM’: The 5-0 victory was PSG’s first Champions League title, and the biggest final win by any team in the 70-year history of the top-flight European competition Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever with teenager Desire Doue scoring twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory. Doue supplied the pass for Achraf Hakimi to give PSG an early lead and the 19-year-old went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled the advantage in the 20th minute. Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu, another teenager, made it five. Inter were
The Greek basketball league finals between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos were suspended by the government on Monday following on-court scuffles involving rival security teams. The best-of-five series is at 1-1. The third game, scheduled for today, has been postponed. The owners of both clubs were summoned to meet with the country’s sports minister. They “will be asked to provide explicit guarantees that this situation will be brought to an end. If not, this year’s championship will be definitively canceled,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “There can be no tolerance for such pathological phenomena of violence and delinquency.” In online posts, the owners of Panathinaikos and
The Edmonton Oilers on Thursday defeated the Dallas Stars 6-3 to book their place in the Stanley Cup Finals, setting up a repeat of last year’s NHL showpiece against reigning champions the Florida Panthers. The Oilers, bidding to become the first Canadian team to win the NHL’s championship series since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens, head to Florida for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series set for Wednesday. Florida, who are to play in the NHL showpiece for the third straight season, won last year’s title 4-3 to extend Canada’s decades-long Stanley Cup drought. Connor McDavid led Edmonton back to the championship series on
RSS