Rider grabs rivals front brake at 130 mph!

When I read the headlines I thought it was unbelievable.

But after watching that video clip I’m speechless, it really is unbelievable.

There is no justification whatsoever for this kind of lunacy. Crutchlow is right, he should be banned for life.
 
The 2 race ban was too little as he has previous form for being a 'pain in the', best that no other team employs him so it in effect becomes a lifetime ban.
 
The kid's temper just cost him what could have been a great career. It seems to be a common trait among the spoiled brat athletes and entertainers in todays world. A lot of them are real hotheads and it's rare to find one who is levelheaded enough to deserve the respect (not to mention the money) the fans heap upon them. Talent doesn't make a person good. I really enjoy Moto GP and lots of other sports, music and entertainment , but the people involved are just people with talent, not necessarily my kind of heroes. Fenati might be very talented but he sure comes up short in sportsmanship, morals, ethics, common sense and values.
Charlie
 
I wanna think that it might have been a bad joke. When I was young and dumb and we were all canyon racing we often scared a guy as we came along side by honking the horn, or reached over and poked him, or grabbed his right arm, or slapped at his kill switch. All good fun. Then, when we were about to pull out onto the road for another run up or down some road, and the guy next to me (closest to the road) turned his head to look behind for traffic, I'd reach over and flip his kill switch, or worse, turn the poor guy's key off, and then we'd all laugh and leave him for a last a place start. Happened to me . . . I forget how many times.

Similarly, while less common, a friendly slap at a guy's front brake lever did sometimes happen. No one ever crashed.

But then, none of the reports say that that is an excuse he made . . . . and even if so, it would have been a really bad joke, awful judgment, not when it's during the execution of a professional's job. That excuse would be worse, more stupid, than admitting to an attempt at cheating.
 
Lifetime ban, PERIOD.

I sincerely hope they re-consider and ban him permanently.

How would YOU like to be the dead, or paralyzed for life, guy he "pranked"?
 
Yep life time ban, there seems to be a lot of bad sportmanship happening in GP racing these days, I was a good Rossi fan till the day he used his leg on a fellow racer but the thing is its becoming like its on the road, road rage, but look whats been happening with sports people of today, to much money, temper tantrum if it don't go their own way, sometimes mistakes happen but to grab a handful of brake at speed because something happened to them.
Well for one thing he has come out the loser, his team has kicked him out he would have no friends to surport him, fellow riders will reject him and I am sure they will let him know when hes back on the track and he will lose most of his sponsors for sure.
Surly he must know cameras are all over the track and he be caught out all because of a mishap that happened to him.
This hopefully this will be the end of his career.

Ashley
 
The other guy did not crash, so what was done was probably safe. If you road race a bit, you will sometimes see guys doing things to one another - like kicking and standing on gear-shift levers. - that kind of idiocy. Usually those who do it bring themselves undone.
If you watch the video, the front of the other bike dropped only very slightly. The front wheel did not break loose and create a big moment. There was hardly any disturbance at all.
If you race, there is always a chance that amongst the other riders, there might be a bloody fool. I only ever copped one and he almost killed me. I went down the road on the top of my head and got a dislocated collar bone, when I braked too hard to avoid him after he cut in front of me and braked. It could very easily have been my neck.
 
Road racing is not a kid's game. In future, the guy who tweaked the brake lever will have to ride against other riders who are equally as good and rely on them for his own safety. It is always very easy to make things more difficult for other riders. - 'If you have a victim's mindset, you will be a victim' ? At some time he will probably need a gap to pop into and it won't be there. Personally, I don't usually get involved in such stupidity. I never leave anybody with nowhere to go.
 
Another point here is that in order to get to the top of your game (whatever it is) those with a very narrow / deep focus are predisposed to a better chance of success than well balanced, well rounded, grounded individuals.

On top of the reasons already suggested like too much money, being spoiled, being ‘prima donna’ etc, this single mindedness that is part of their reason for success, is the same single mindless that’s at the root of such selfish behaviour.

So I guess what I’m saying is that at the very top of the game, you’re always going to see a higher proportion of selfish primma donna’s by default.

However, please don’t get me wrong, NOTHING excuses this brake grabbing behaviour. When you consider just how powerful their brakes are, and just how fast they’re going, and the potential for serious incident, there’s no way that falls into ‘harmless prank’ territory.

It seems he has retired from motorcycle sport now. But I still argue that in order to make it clear that this is not acceptable, the bodies should issue either a lifetime, or at least, a very long ban.
 
according to one article "and gave the Forward Racing rider’s front brake lever a tweak. It was only for a fraction of a second, but it was hard enough to have produced a brake pressure of 20 bar, Manzi later told the Italian press. The average braking pressure a Moto2 rider uses at Misano is 9 bar."
 
You could see the rider's legs come up the level of his seat. Someone else might have sought him out after the race and shot him dead.
 
That's like say "we went on patrol today, a bunch of bad guys were shooting at us but no one got hit so it was probably safe"


You are not dead until you are dead. Some people worry to much - it does not change anything. All you need to do is manage the risk. If that guy has tweaked my brake lever, I probably would have crashed because I can lock it with one finger. But with most bikes, it would be quite OK. The front dropped a bit, but the front tyre did not break away. I know a few guys who are quite capable of doing what that Italian rider did. When you race, you have to live with other peoples' sense of humour, even when they get dangerous. What is really wrong is when there is real mal-intent.- and you can sometimes encounter that. You need to know whom you are racing against and whether there is anyone who has a really big ego problem.
 
Eddie - He did not GRAB the brake, he tweaked it. If he had grabbed it, the front tyre would have lost contact with the road and the other guy would have crashed. What was done, was obviously done to stir the other rider and make him back off and feel inferior. It is all gamesmanship. When you road race, if you look like being competitive, the good guys often use tactics to put you off your game. Many races are lost in the pits by competitive guys listening to the good guys mouthing off. Some of them do tricky things on the start line - like tugging at bolts and asking 'did you check this'. Others will stick a foot out in front of you while out-braking you into a corner, or give you a pat on the backside while passing you. In road-racing, psychology can make a lot of difference. I really doubt that Italian rider would be malicious at that level of racing. He would not have got there.
 
" . . . . It is all gamesmanship. When you road race, if you look like being competitive, the good guys often use tactics to put you off your game. Many races are lost in the pits by competitive guys listening to the good guys mouthing off. Some of them do tricky things on the start line - like tugging at bolts and asking 'did you check this'. Others will stick a foot out in front of you while out-braking you into a corner, or give you a pat on the backside while passing you. In road-racing, psychology can make a lot of difference. . . . "
Acotrel - can't believe it; that part I agree with. Could be.

Another thing, I suspect that he squeezed, as opposed to the slap that we used to do, on account of those brake guards that are now required. The guards, of course, prevent an accidental brushing contact with another rider from also accidentally applying the brake and causing a certain crash. A squeeze will be longer in duration than a slap. Truly bad idea.
 
What ever was his intention was it should have never happen, if it happened to me I would have grabbed him back in the pits and give him a good bashing, we use to do silly things on our dirt bikes in our younger days but on a race track at the speeds they do, no way..

Ashley
 
Al you are talking utter bollox.

This is gonna be a long thread if we start dissecting the difference between a mild grab and a hard squeeze.

Anyway, such semantics are irrelevant, it’s like asking if he fired the gun hard. To deliberately and overtly reach accross and interfere with another riders controls is cheating, is dangerous, is out of order. Period.

In this day and age of technology, knowing full well that practically every move is covered by cameras, it was also pretty brain dead stupid too.

Gamesmanship? Seriously! How about I just stroll up to someone in the paddock and punch them in the face to ‘make them feel inferior’. After all, boxing is a sport isn’t it?

If it’s ‘gamesmanship’ how come he’s got a two year ban? How come it made headline news aroudnthe world?

Clearly, and thankfully, the rest of the world seems to disagree with you.
 
Last edited:
After looking at the long discussion, all I can say is that if it wasn’t for the cameras he would have got away with it, as it is, he got caught. Doesn’t matter one iota if the rider didn’t fall off, the question is if he had, then broken his neck –or worse, and was then crippled in a wheelchair for the rest of his life-what then? This kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable in any sport, and should be stamped out.
 
Back
Top