MotoGP: Over 275,000 fans sign petition to get Valentino Rossi’s Malaysian GP penalty dropped

UNHAPPY at Valentino Rossi’s penalty for his clash with Marc Marquez in Malaysia, almost 300 thousand fans are petitioning to get it overturned.

Yamaha MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi of Italy takes photos with fans after the free practice session of the Malaysian Motorcyc...

A PETITION to try and force MotoGP officials to drop the penalty levied to Valentino Rossi in the wake of his clash with Marc Marquez at the Malaysian Grand Prix has garnered over 275 thousand signatures in one day.

Rossi was handed three penalty points against his racing licence after running Marquez wide and appearing to knock him off his bike in the early laps of the race at Sepang on Sunday.

The penalty points, added to the one he’d already earned for baulking Jorge Lorenzo during qualifying at Misano, will ensure Rossi will start the final race of the championship at Valencia seven points ahead of his Yamaha teammate but from the final row of the grid.

ANGER: Rossi and Marquez at war over Malaysian GP crash

SANCTION: Rossi penalised for his clash with Marquez

CONDEMNATION: Marquez & Honda sponsor slams ‘reprehensible’ Rossi

MARQUEZ: ‘It’s no racing incident; he push me with his leg’

POINTS: Where Rossi must finish to win the 2015 MotoGP title

The incident has divided fans, some believing Rossi should be drawn and quartered over his actions, others believing he was undeserving of the sanction and that he’d been strongly goaded into it by an overly-aggressive Marquez.

Nicholas Davis, of Virginia Water in the United Kingdom, is in the latter camp.

“The integrity of MotoGP is falling into disgrace,” his petition, directed at MotoGP race director Mike Webb, FIM officials, UFIM officials, and Yamaha team boss Lin Jarvis, begins.

“You have just condoned dirty racing tactics by punishing Valentino Rossi for pursuing the championship whilst being harassed and sabotaged by Marc Marquez.

“Justifying your decision by stating that there is no rule to deal with the actions of Marc Marquez is as absurd as saying there is no rule to prevent riders shooting at other riders with guns.”

Davis’s petition, now translated into Italian, Spanish, Japanese, French, Dutch and Indonesian, had garnered 277,408 signatures of support by 11am AEDT on Tuesday, gaining over four thousand in the time it took to write this story.

The petition can be found here.

Although Rossi’s Yamaha team’s initial appeal of MotoGP Race Direction’s decision was quashed, the team still has the option of launching a further appeal to the FIM, motorcycle racing’s world governing body.

UPDATE: As of 4:40pm AEDT on Wednesday 28 October, the petition has garnered over 440,000 signatures.

Originally published as MotoGP: Over 275,000 fans sign petition to get Valentino Rossi’s Malaysian GP penalty dropped