Valentino Rossi has denied claims he deliberately kicked Marc Marquez in a controversial clash during the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The pair collided while disputing third position resulting in Marquez falling from his factory Honda after Rossi drifted into him at Turn 14.
Footage of the incident appears to show Rossi using his leg to make contact with Marquez causing the rider to drop his bike.
Rossi has responded to accusations from Marquez that he intentionally kicked the Honda rider to make him fall from his machine.
The clash arrived just days after the Yamaha rider accused Marquez of trying to hinder his title bid at the Australian Grand Prix.
“No Marquez knows that is not true, because it is very clear from the image, especially from the helicopter that I don’t want to make him crash,” said Rossi.
“I just want to make him lose time and go out of the line and slow down because also this time, a lot worse than in Australia, he make his dirty game no?
“After we touch and he touched with his handlebar on the right on my leg, I lose the foot from the foot peg, but if you look at the image from the helicopter it is clear that when I lose the foot from the footrest Marquez had already crashed.
“So I don’t want to kick him. Also if you give a kick to a MotoGP bike, it don’t crash. It is not that you kick the bike; it is very heavy, like this, and he crash.
“But unfortunately we touched; he wanted to turn because I go very wide and I felt his handlebar on my leg her, on my thigh and I lose the leg on the foot peg. It is like this.
Race Direction imposed three penalty points on Rossi’s licence while demoting the championship leader to the back of the grid for the title deciding finale at Valencia.
Rossi feels the sanctions are unfair and likely to cost him the chance of claiming a 10th world title.
His championship lead over team-mate Jorge Lorenzo has been cut to seven points following the latter’s second place finish at Sepang.
“For me is not fair, also because like this, Marquez win his fight,” added Rossi.
“His program is okay because he made me lose the championship.
“Especially for me the sanction is not good because I don’t want to make him crash purposefully, I just reacted to his behaviour. I didn’t kick him and I didn’t want to make him crash.
“For me this is unfair; as I just want to fight for the championship with Jorge and the better man win. Like this it doesn’t happen.”
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