An eventful Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand saw Valentino Rossi’s conflict with Marc Marquez reach an explosive conclusion.

Tension between Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) had been rapidly building since the pre-race press conference on Thursday, reaching an explosive end in the race. Rossi had made a solid start to the race and found himself in third with title rival Jorge Lorenzo trapped behind two Ducatis. Lorenzo eventually broke free and passed Rossi, the Italian then falling into the clutches of Marquez. As predicted the battle was fierce as the passed each other multiple times, allowing Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) to escape in the distance.

On lap six the two touched through Turn 14 and Marquez went down, Rossi having altered his line to try and improve his exit speed. The incident was immediately flagged for review by Race Direction for after the race. It was then a solitary race for Rossi in third, unchallenged by any other riders and unable to close on the leaders. After the race Rossi was awarded three penalty points, bringing him to a total of four and will therefore start the final race of the year in Valencia from last on the grid. With Lorenzo claiming second, Rossi’s lead is cut to just seven points.

Valentino Rossi:

Rossi has been awarded 3 penalty points and will start at the back of the grid at the Valencia GP

Jorge Lorenzo has hit out at race direction after Valentino Rossi was handed just three penalty points for the incident with Marc Marquez in today’s MotoGP race.

After an intense battle, Rossi ran Marquez out wide at Turn 14 and as the pair came together, it appeared that the Italian nudged the Repsol Honda with his knee, causing him to crash out of the race.

As a result, Rossi was given three penalty points from Race Direction which mean he’ll start from the back of the grid for the final round at Valencia, but Lorenzo says this isn’t enough.

"I don’t think it is a good decision,” he said after the race. "He took out Marc, Marc crashed and gets zero points but Valentino gets 16 points. I think it’s unfair and maybe because of his name he can get no points penalisation.

"When I saw it i didn’t believe it. It doesn’t enter in my head to do this kind of thing, never in my life. In this kind of corner you are completely in the angle of braking so to move like that with the leg it is unbelievable that this happened.”

Lorenzo said he feels Rossi should have been disqualified from the race.

"At minimum he should have the same points as Marc. Without this action Marc would not crash and would have finished in third or fourth. If he didn’t finish the race and get zero points Valentino should get the same. Less aggressive actions from other riders has resulted in much higher penalties. His name is very important for the championship and maybe because of that he doesn’t get any penalisation of points in the championship. Yes, he will start last but it’s not fair. We’ll have to respect this, I’m not in race direction but I don’t share their view.

"I don’t think this type of action is a great action from a champion like Valentino Rossi. One thing is the contact, but it is another to put the leg out, contact the rider, look at the rider and push out to make him crash.

"I’m going to try to accept the decision, I don’t know what I can do more. If he starts from the last position in the rain he will stay there for one or two laps or if it’s dry he will have more problems but he can be world champion and this is not a fair final of the championship knowing what happened today on the track. If this happens, he will not be a fair champion this time.”

Valentino Rossi has denied deliberately knocking Marc Marquez from his Repsol Honda during today’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

After an intense battle, Rossi ran the Spaniard out wide at Turn 14, something he happily admits, but the pair collided and Marquez ended up on the floor.

Some camera angles appear to show Rossi’s leg moving towards Marquez, as if he’d kicked him off the bike but the Italian denies this, saying Marquez had already crashed when his foot was off the peg.

"I don’t want to make Marquez crash, and I didn’t kick him,” said Rossi speaking in Malaysia. "If you look at the image, like I did in race direction, frame by frame, you can see more from the helicopter.                            

"From the side, it looks like I give him a kick, but from the helicopter it’s clear that I go wide – because I don’t want to do the normal corner. I want to go to him, I want to close the line, I want to slow him down, make him lose time.

"It’s the only thing I can do. In every braking he comes past me, he slows me down in the corners, and he doesn’t open the throttle fully on the straights. When I slow down, slow down, slow down and go to try and cut his line, we touched.

"He touched me with the handlebar on my left leg, and when we touch, it is for that that he crashed. If you go slow, frame-by-frame, you can see that when I lose the foot from the peg, Marquez is already down; he’s already crashed.

The championship leader was keen to emphasise that even if he had kicked Marquez, that wouldn’t have been enough to make him crash.

"If I wanted to kick him, I could have done it 20 metres before, when we were already close, but also, if you give a kick to a MotoGP rider, he doesn’t crash. The bike is heavy, it has a lot of grip, and it don’t crash because you give it a kick. Instead, he touched my leg with the handlebars and that’s why he crashed.

"You can touch with the fairing hard and make him crash, but I don’t want to make him crash – I just want to say to him ‘f**k off.’”

Rossi had hit out at Marquez earlier this week with claims the Spaniard had deliberately tried to hold him up in Phillip Island.

Marquez was trying hard to get past Rossi and pulled a number of aggressive moves before the pairs came to blows, but whether he was trying to slow him again is not clear.

"I looked at Marquez five or six times in the first few laps,” said Rossi. "I looked at him to say ‘what are you f**king doing? Why are you doing this another time?’ It was like when you look at another car on the road!”

Race Direction have issued Rossi with three penalty points for the incident, which, when added to the one point he incurred for getting in Jorge Lorenzo’s way during qualifying at Misano, places him on the back of the grid in Valencia.

Rossi leads the championship standings by seven points after today’s race, but beating Lorenzo will be tough from the back of the grid.

"For this, I’m very disappointed for the three points,” he said. “He [Marquez] won. He decided the championship and he made me lose the championship. I think that he will be very happy.

"I think the penalty is too heavy. One point in Misano because I did a mistake on Jorge’s qualifying lap when he already had pole position – and I’ve never taken a point before because normally I am very fair on the track. I did a mistake and for me that was quite heavy already.

"But this three points give me a big problem for Valencia, because if I am to start from last it is quite impossible. I don’t want to make Marquez crash and that makes it heavy.”

When asked if he’d lost respect for the Spaniard after the incident, he replied: "Have I lost respect for Marquez? What do you think?”