Argentina MotoGP: Rossi Scared To Ride Alongside Marquez After Latest Clash

Cal Crutchlow may have won the Argentina round of the MotoGP Championship in tricky conditions on Sunday, but the main talking point of the weekend was the clash between Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi.

Marquez and Rossi have, in the past, shared a fractious relationship due to multiple on-track controversies and the two clashed yet again at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit in Argentina on Thursday. This time the seven-time MotoGP champion did not mince his words when he labeled the Spaniard a danger to the sport.

A late lunge from Marquez at turn 13 in the latter stages of the race saw him make contact with Rossi and push the Yamaha rider wide on to the grass. The Italian rider went down while Honda rider continued his quest to make up places. The multiple-time world champion got going again, but had to settle for 19th place.

Rossi was livid after the incident gesturing towards Marquez, who rode off after waving what seemed like an apology for his error. The Italian labeled him dangerous and believes Marques did it purposely as he wants his rivals out of the race.

The four-time MotoGP champion’s incident with Rossi was not the first of his weekend. He had run-ins with Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales and Andrea Dovizioso on Saturday and during the race he collided with Aleix Espargaro while trying to overtake him, and was forced to cede the place back to the Aprilia rider.

Rossi admits he is scared to ride next to Marquez on the track and confirmed he had words with race director Mike Webb about taking strict action for such infringements. The Italian motorcycling legend also gave a detailed explanation with regards to Marquez’s technique of ensuring he stays upright while his opponent crashes out.

“I'm OK, but this is a very bad situation. If you take what happened this weekend as an example, one incident can happen to anybody, you can make a mistake in braking, you can touch the other guy. It can happen, it's racing," Rossi said after the race, as quoted on Yahoo Sports.

"But from Friday morning on, Marquez did this to [Maverick] Vinales, to [Andrea] Dovizioso, to me, and on Saturday morning, and today he went straight through four riders.

"If you start to race like this, you raise the level to a very dangerous point. If all the riders race like this, this will become a very dangerous sport and it will finish in a bad way,” the Italian veteran added.

"It's a very dangerous situation and I hope that what I said to Race Director Mike Webb makes them take more responsibility, they have to do something."

"I'm scared on the track when I'm with Marquez. I was scared today when I saw his name on the board. I'm not Race Direction — they will decide — but like this he is destroying our sport, because when you do 300km an hour on the track, you have to have respect for your rivals,” he said.

Marquez, who was given a 30-second time penalty that saw him finish 18th — one place ahead of Rossi, made an effort to apologize to the Italian after the race. He went to the Yamaha garage to make peace, but it was made clear to him that he was not welcome.

Rossi, who was not present in the garage for Marquez’s visit later labeled his efforts a Public Relations stunt and suggested the Honda rider is not truly apologetic, and that it was only done for the attention of the television cameras.

"It was a joke. It was PR,” Rossi said. “First of all, he doesn’t have the balls to come to my office alone.”

“He come, like always, with his manager, with Honda, in front of all the cameras because what is important for him is this; he don’t care about you, he don’t care."

“I don’t want to speak with him. I don’t want to see him close to me because I know it’s not true what he say to me,” the Yamaha rider added.