The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) will be reviewing the conduct of track officials regarding their handling of the crash aduring the Spanish GP, which saw Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner crashing out together in Turn 1. After separating the bikes, as Stoner’s had been on top of Rossi’s, a vast majority of the corner workers rushed to Rossi’s aid, leaving Stoner stranded until the Italian was underway.
Stoner in the post-race debriefs was noticeably upset over the favortism shown by the Spanish workers (he did not re-enter the race), a complaint that was also levied by Marco Simoncelli, who also got no assistance in his incident.
From these complaints, and surely fueled by the controversay and speculation in the media, the Race Direction has decided to organize a hearing with the Clerk of the Course and the Chief Marshal in order to review the Rossi/Stoner incident at Turn 1 (sorry Marco). The FIM apparently wants to hear the explanation for the circuit workers’ actions, but we think the answer is pretty clear.
Take a bunch of motorcycle enthusiasts, tell them they can watch one of the biggest races of the year for free as long as they haul crashed bikes out of the gravel (some people would even pay to do that sort of manual labor), give them probably 10 minutes of instruction, and Bob’s your uncle with the chaos the ensues.
Nevertheless the FIM surely needs to save some face and look proactive on this issue. As the ruling will not affect the outcome of the race (they’re not examining the crash itself, instead everything post-crash), there’s no time pressure, thus the hearing will be held Thursday April 28th in Estoril, Portugal.
Source: MotoGP
Comments