Valentino Rossi jokes about Honda's bike data

HRC announced, at a press conference at Cheste, that the data would be released on Wednesday. It was hoped that Marc Márquez's team would finally provide the bike data which allegedly proved that Valentino Rossi had kicked the Spaniard's bike and caused him to fall at Sepang.

However, Wednesday came and went and there was no data: "Dorna has asked us not to disclose it and we don't want to add more fuel to the fire", came the response from HRC.

The situation gave Valentino Rossi a chance to hit out sarcastically at Honda with some light-hearted comments. "I was interested in seeing Honda's bike data. It's strange. How lovely. I'd like them to prove, with their data, that I kicked out. I'd like you all to ask them to release it. If not for the good of the sport, then…", he said chortling.

Unlucky start for Ferrari

Rome, March 21 - Ferrari endured an unlucky start to the season at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, while Valentino Rossi extended his contract with Yamaha before finishing fourth as the 2016 MotoGP championship got underway in Qatar.
    Ferrari are aiming to end a long trophy-less run this term and their hopes of making a flying start were lifted when Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen overtook the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at the start.
    Four-time world champion Vettel led for much of the race but his hopes of victory were hit by the race being stopped after McLaren's Fernando Alonso crashed into Haas driver Esteban Gutierrez.
    The German ended up coming third, with the team's tyre strategy also letting him down, while Raikkonen was forced to retire due to an engine problem.
    But the Italian glamour outfit can take comfort from the fact that their new race car looks competitive. "I obviously had a great start, I was very happy to see that I had a better start than the two cars in front of me," said Vettel, who joined Ferrari from Red Bull last year. "The red flag didn't help us, but to be fair the most important thing was that Fernando and Esteban were all right. It was the right decision to stop the race. "Naturally the expectations are higher when you had a strong season last year and you wanted to close the gap. "In general it was a great race, I was racing flat out right to the end".
    Italy's nine-time motorcyling world champ Rossi got a big vote of confidence from Yamaha, who have renewed the 37-year-old's contract until the end of 2018.
    Rossi is aiming to notch his 10th title this year, his eighth in the premium class, after narrowly missing out last year to his teammate Jorge Lorenzo in a controversial climate to the season.
    He was forced to start from the back of the grid of the final race in punishment for kicking out at former world champion Marc Marquez. Rossi accused Marquez of deliberately trying to scupper his title bid, but has stressed that he has put that behind him and is focusing on the new campaign. After a strong start on Sunday, Rossi struggled to keep the pace with the leaders and had to settle for fourth in a race won by Lorenzo.
    "At the end it was a great race, the pace was very fast from the beginning to the end, but unfortunately I stayed behind and I didn't have enough speed to try and attack," Rossi said. "I was there but I was never in the real fight, I was always a little bit behind. "We need a faster pace and maybe the tyre choice can make some difference, but we don't know. Maybe with the soft tyre I could go faster".
    Italian motorcycling fans also had cause for cheer from the good showing of the Ducatis. Andrea Dovizioso came second ahead of Marquez and Ducati's Andrea Iannone was also among the challengers before sliding out.