Following the crash that involved Alvaro Bautista and Valentino Rossi at the Poggio Secco chicane of the opening lap of the Italian GP, the race direction immediately investigated the incident and came to the conclusion that it was just a ‘racing incident’ and that no action will be taken against either of the riders.
Bautista was on the inside while Rossi rode around him on the outside and was ahead of the Spaniard as the Honda rider tipped in for the next corner in acceleration and found Rossi and the two touched.
Bautista immediately slid of his Honda, while his bike remained attached to the Yamaha M1 for several yards and when it snapped off, Rossi jumped off, but he slided towards the air fence where he then flipped into the air to the shocked horror of his fans, as you could almost hear the collective breath holding above the roar of the engines.
Neither Bautista or Rossi required the Clinica Mobile, but the Italian would later say that one of his buttock cheeks hurt as did his right hand and foot, and he was lucky that he wasn’t more seriously injured.
He also declared it was possible that Bautista didn’t see him and that it was an unfortunate racing incident, and also stated that he had a bad start because his clutch slipped.
A racing incident with Rossi at Mugello – home of the Italian rider – couldn’t have been easy for Bautista – with everyone remembering what happened at Assen last year.
The Gresini rider denied any culpability and said that he didn’t see the Yamaha rider.
This is the statement released by the FIM and Race Direction: “Regarding the incident between Valentino Rossi (ITA) and Alvaro Bautista (ESP) in the MotoGP race of Mugello on 2 June.
The Race Direction has reviewed the incident and held a hearing with both riders where all available evidence was reviewed.
Based on this evidence the Race Direction decision is that it was a racing incident and no further action will be taken.
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