MotoGP series leader Valentino Rossi will start from the back of the grid at the Valencia round after race direction gave him three points for today’s incident with Marc Marquez (click here) which puts an effective end to his title chances.

Rossi keeps his points from this race and will have to fight his way back to second in the Spanish race should team-mate Jorge Lorenzo win. However, the judicial process in racing means that both Honda and Yamaha can protest this decision and it may not be fully resolved for some time.

For instance, the incident between Loris Capirossi and Tetsuya Harada (see video below) at the last round in 1998 wasn’t sorted out until mid-winter and the Lodge Corner controversy between Neil Hodgson and Chris Walker went right up to an RAC hearing before Hodgson was finally crowned British Superbike Champion.

Meanwhile team-mate Jorge Lorenzo said anything less than a disqualification was unfair (click here). Rossi has left the circuit and will not speak to media.

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