Italian GP – Alvaro Bautista robbed of win by Simoncelli

Another overeager move from Marco Simoncelli saw Mapfre Aspar’s rider Alvaro Bautista robbed of the win at Mugello. Running away at the front in the early laps was Simoncelli, but Mattia Pasini and Alvaro Bautista soon caught him after closing a huge 9-second gap. Once arriving at Simoncelli while constantly clocking the fastest laptimes and having passed Pasini earlier, Bautista made a move for the lead and headed the trio for several laps in the wet race before Simoncelli once again overestimated his own speed, trying to pass Bautista in a corner, but having no space to do so, subsequently forcing both riders wide and going out in the gravel, handing Pasini a comfortable lead. Simoncelli came out from the gravel still in second with Bautista in third. With still 9 laps to go Bautista once again caught up with Simoncelli, closing another big 4-second gap, but then having a scary moment on the bike and finally finishing the race in third position, only a second behind winner Pasini. Undeniably the fastest rider during the race, the incident with Simoncelli denied Bautista a very possible win and didn’t do anything to increase the already tense relationship between the two.

The incident is under investigation by race direction. And the authors of this Blog hope that the administration might finally do something about Simoncelli’s reckless riding and penalize him for his actions, he’d surely deserve it.