Rossi Penalty Stay Denied; Will Start From Back of Grid at Valencia

Dennis Chung
by Dennis Chung

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed Valentino Rossi’s application to stay his penalty for the events at the Malaysian Grand Prix. As a result, the three penalty points levied to Rossi by the International Motorcycling Federation’s stewards will stand, forcing the current MotoGP points leader to start from the last position on the grid for this weekend’s season finale at Valencia.

Arbitrator Ulrich Haas reached the decision following a preliminary hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland between Rossi’s representatives and Richard Perret, the FIM’s legal director. The court did say it will still consider annulling or dismissing the penalty, but that decision will not be made before this weekend’s race which is what matters.

The ruling puts Rossi at a serious disadvantage as he will start from the back of the grid on Sunday. Rossi leads his Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo by a mere seven points in the championship. Should Lorenzo win, Rossi will need to finish second to hold onto the lead and claim a tenth world title.

[Source: FIM]

Dennis Chung
Dennis Chung

Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.

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