Raging Rossi told Marquez: “What the f***, they will remember you only for this”

Rossi lost out on the championship eight years ago in a chapter of MotoGP folklore to his teammate Jorge Lorenzo, and accused his fierce rival Marquez of intentionally scuppering his hopes.

A new back-story to their vicious feud has now been told by Rossi, who has explained a conversation he had with his nemesis after the notorious Valencia season-ending race.

“I talked to him because there we were, together,” the Italian told Gianluca Gazzoli’s podcast. 

“I told him: ‘do you realise what the f*** you are doing? You're making a s*** figure. They will remember you only for this, whatever you do, it will be like this forever.

“‘Is it worth ruining you to make me lose the world championship?’ 

“But he wasn't looking at me, he was absent.”

Rossi on Marquez in 2015: “Great injustice, a stain that will never go”

“With Marquez it was totally different because it was no longer a sporting rivalry on the track,” Rossi said.

“He decided to make me lose the world championship by making someone else win, but it wasn't even his teammate! It was my teammate!

“He invented excuses saying that I had done something to him. I was the one to destroy for him, the myth to destroy so that he could become what I was. 

“It is something that has never been seen before - a rider, above all a champion, who races to make another win. 

“In professional sport it has never been seen - even among schoolmates! 

“It was something absurd, an awful moment. 

“It didn't give me the chance to fight for the title with Lorenzo to the end in a stellar year, I could have become world champion for the tenth time. It prevented me from putting the icing on the cake of my career. 

“Maybe I would have lost.

“It was a great injustice, a stain that will never go away.”

The prodigious Marquez had won the MotoGP championship in each of his premier class seasons heading into 2015, while Rossi was aiming to add to his total of seven amid a rivalry with his teammate Lorenzo.

In Sepang, Malaysia, at the penultimate round of the season, a clash between Rossi and Marquez resulted in the Spaniard crashing. Marquez believes Rossi kicked out at him, causing the fall.

Rossi was penalised by starting at the back of the grid for the season-ending race in Valencia.

Rossi then sat in a press conference and accused Marquez of trying to spite him by aiding Lorenzo’s bid for the title - his explosive words were directly in front of his rivals.

Rossi needed to finish second in Valencia to win the championship but was held off by Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, behind Lorenzo who won the race and the title.

Rossi would battle on until 2021 but would never win another title.

Rossi: Marquez says I kicked him, but I didn’t…

“If I think about those last three races from 2015 now, I have exactly the same feeling as when I crossed the finish line in 2015,” he said now.

“There is a very deep wound, I think about it too much.

“Fortunately I have done many other things that make me happy with my career but…”

Rossi denies intentionally kicking Marquez in Sepang: “In Malaysia he bothered me the whole race. He tried to throw me down. Then after the straight we touched.

“He says I kicked him. But I didn’t.

“Anyway, he crashed. After the race I went [to the stewards] and thought they would start him last - instead they started me last. 

“He ruined a crucial race for the world championship, the penultimate race of the championship.”

Rossi: I told Stewards about Marquez, they looked to say ‘but this is crazy!’ 

Rossi insists he constantly warned MotoGP stewards to beware of Marquez’s conduct, but claims it fell on deaf ears.

“The organisation was unable to control it,” he said. “They could have done much better. I told him and I also told the stewards.

“I clearly told the stewards 'Marquez will arrive in Valencia, he will be behind Lorenzo and he will make him win by being a guard and without ever trying to [beat] him'.

“They looked at me as if to say ‘but this is crazy!’ 

“It should have been managed better. It was a great pity, especially for me, but also for the championship.”

Rossi denied that he intended to retire in 2015 if he won the championship, and claimed he always planned to race on.

Marquez is vying to equal Rossi's tally of seven premier class titles, although it already looks unlikely to happen in 2023.