If you thought that what happened during Sunday’s World Superbike round at Monza was now more or less laid to rest and everyone involved, Infront, Pirelli, teams, riders just wanted to sweep the whole nightmarish weekend under the rug and move on, but Effenbert Liberty’s team’s controversial ‘j’accuse’ press release has sparked a reaction from Paolo Flammini.
The CEO of Infront Motorsports told the usual Gazzetta dello Sport, that following the Italian/Czech team’s press release he now has attorneys looking it at (probably because the championship’s ‘macho’ image was tarnished) and that he talked with all the other teams and everyone agreed on the decisions that were taken on Sunday (however some did an about face).
He also emphasized that the decision to cancel Race 1 was not from a decision made by the more ‘famous’ riders (Marco Melandri, Max Biaggi, Carlos Checa, Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes who checked out the track situation also from the safety cars) but it came directly from the Race Direction and was taken due to the rain storm (it also hailed) that hit the circuit in that precise moment, and in those conditions they couldn’t go ahead with the race.
Marco Melandri, who appeared to be one of the ringleaders and wanted to stall the re-start (his BMW was completely binned) has just saw his head roll as Flammini said, “The Race Direction is reviewing the situation.
Many of the riders wanted to race and it seems clear that Melandri does not represent the majority of the grid and he will no longer be a part of those riders that are going to be called on when these type of situations arise.
”Apparently Melandri could also pay a high price for voluntarily shutting down his BMW S1000RR and delaying the start of race 2 – there is talk that he could be stripped of his fourth place finish at Monza or be penalized on the starting grid at Donington Park.
And just to add a tidbit of gossip following the rumor that Donington Park could be Effenbert’s last round pending a pullout, the team could be on the grid with no sponsor banners.