Pedrosa: Sepang drama bad for all of us

Sepang race winner Dani Pedrosa has expressed his disappointment after Sunday's dramatic clash between Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez soured the Malaysian MotoGP.

Rossi and Marquez tangled on lap seven, with the Movistar Yamaha rider pushing the outgoing world champion wide before contact was made between the Italian's leg and Marquez's Honda, causing the 22-year-old to crash out.

Race Direction later handed Rossi three penalty points after reviewing the incident and ruled that the 36-year-old will start the final round of the championship at Valencia in Spain in two weeks' time from the back of the grid, with Rossi having accumulated four penalty points in total after an infraction at Misano.

Pedrosa, celebrating his second win of the season after the 30-year-old dominated from pole to lead all the way and secure a convincing win by 3.6 seconds from new world title favourite Jorge Lorenzo, said the controversy at Sepang 'is not good for any of us'.

Speaking at a delayed post-race press conference - held without third place finisher Rossi - Pedrosa said: "I had the opportunity to watch it just now; it's not good - I don't think it's a good thing. It's not good for the championship, it's not good for any of us and I don't think it's good for Valentino, for Marc, Jorge or me - even though I wasn't involved.

"It's not a good thing to be happening in this late battle of the championship. From my point of view I can say that the battle was there from the early laps [between Rossi and Marquez]. Sure, it was heated up from the press conference and practice sessions and then they get together in the race and start fighting quite early.

"The manoeuvres were okay; sure, Valentino wanted to have a more calm race and maybe try to catch Jorge for second, but Marc wanted to stay on the podium because Marc always has a fighting spirit and he has quite a good way to manage the bike and do special overtaking," Pedrosa added.

"But what I can say from the last manoeuvre: I think when you have the inside, you can go as out [wide] as you want because the guy on the inside has the preference always so normally the guy on the outside should shut [the throttle]. But I can see that the speed is already very slow so Marc understood that and closed completely the throttle, waiting for Valentino to turn.

"And then there is one moment when I can see Valentino's leg moving and Marc crash. I would like to see more times the image of this moment, but I don't understand why his leg is moving there. Unfortunately, not a good thing and really disappointed about it."

Reflecting on the race, Pedrosa said he was pleased to deliver another victory for everyone who had stood by him during 'the hard times'.

"It's a very weird press conference but just to talk about the race I'm very happy because in the weekend I've been very strong, I have a good feeling with the bike on the track and could perform very well," he said.

"I started from the beginning and stayed in the front so I'm really happy to escape and be unaware of all the problems behind.

"I'm happy to bring this victory to my team; it's been a very hard season, so lately we have been recovering very well and doing very good races," added the Repsol Honda rider.

"This is super good for me and for all the people who stay with me during the hard times, so it's really special to win one race in the wet [Motegi], and one race in the dry."