Ducati rider Valentino Rossi blames start lights delay for riders’ jumpstart at Motegi – MotoGP news
Ducati Team rider Valentino Rossi has stated that the jumpstart was caused due to start lights delay for the race at the Twin Ring Motegi.
During the recent MotoGP round Japanese Grand Prix, three riders were penalised with a ‘ride through’ penalty for having a jumpstart to the race. The three riders included Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso, Honda Gresini’s Marco Simoncelli and Tech3’s Cal
Crutchlow.
The event was filled with drama and several unexpected errors were made by the riders. The track layout extremely tested the nerves of the riders and performance limits of the machines.
Rossi said that the lights went off with a delay of more than a second over.
While talking to Motorcyclenews.com, Valentino Rossi said, “The problem was the red light stayed on too long compared to normal. Usually it is around three seconds but for some reason it stayed on minimum 4.5s and for that reason Andrea, Marco and Cal made
the mistake with the clutch. They expect the light to go out earlier but it doesn't happen when they anticipated.”
The abnormal delay in the light duration caused Dovizioso to make a jump start in the race, which is his first ever mistake in his racing career. Rossi also added that the delay was far more than the riders’ expectations.
On the other side, Marco Simoncelli claimed that he was confused as he watched Dovizioso doing a jump start. Super Sic said that he made the same mistake looking at Dovizioso. MotoGP rookie Cal Crutchlow also reported a similar reason for his jumpstart.
Crutchlow said that his eyes were on Simoncelli which confused him to do a jumpstart. All the three riders had to serve the penalty ride and went through the pit lane during the race.
Two Italians were the most affected by the penalty. After five laps, Casey Stoner went wide leaving Dovizioso to lead the race. That could have been his season’s first win, but at the same moment, he had to pass through the pit lane.
On the other hand, Simoncelli was fast in the race and has a prominent chance to score his second podium finish in the 2011 season.
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