Marco Bezzecchi
Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez enjoyed their fair share of MotoGP scuffles, but 2015 marked the most chaotic year of their rivalry.
Funnily enough, it was the one year in the 2010s that Marquez wasn’t ever in close contention to win the MotoGP title for Honda.
It poses the question – how did Marquez influence the championship if he wasn’t fighting for it? Well, just ask Rossi, who faced a mammoth task to beat the young Spaniard and his Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo.
Marquez’s kick changed his reputation forever, following an incident at the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix, which appeared to show Rossi booting him off his bike.
Rossi was made angry in 2006 and lost a title to Nicky Hayden by five points, but his 2015 defeat was arguably much more frustrating. He had the pace to win it all.
READ MORE: Marc Marquez doesn’t want to do one thing Valentino Rossi did after retiring from MotoGP
Valentino Rossi left ‘really disappointed’ with Marc Marquez during 2015 title fight
Heading into the Australian Grand Prix, Rossi had an 18-point advantage at the top of the standings with three races to go.
After being backed up by Marquez for much of the race at Philip Island, he complained about his actions and felt as if despite having no ties to Lorenzo, he had gone too far.
“It’s important that he knows that I am aware of his game. Now let’s see what will happen; I’m quite worried. One thing is to fight on equal terms with Jorge, another is to beat Marquez, too,” he told Cycle World.
“In Australia, he didn’t race with the fair play that a professional rider like him should have in these situations. I was really disappointed by his behaviour. I’m really sorry. Some GPs ago, I realised that Marc was not playing fairly.”
One race later in Malaysia, the infamous kick incident would happen, showing how quickly their rivalry came to a boil.
What happened to Valentino Rossi at the end of the 2015 MotoGP season?
Rossi was in prime position to claim another title in 2015, but it didn’t quite end up happening for him, as his teammate pipped him to his second trophy.
The real killer was a penalty at the final round of the season which forced Rossi to start from the back of the grid – a consequence of his actions in Malaysia.
He was able to fight back and recover to fourth in Valencia, but it wasn’t quite enough as he missed out on another title by just five points.
He finished just three races off the podium all year, and no lower than fifth with no retirements, but it wasn’t quite enough to beat Lorenzo, who was at the top of his game too.
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