Following the incident in the Moto2 race in Misano on the weekend, in which Romano Fenati blatantly reached out to pull the front brake lever on opponent Stefano Manzi’s bike, Fenati has now lost his ride. Marinelli Snipers Team has dropped Fenati following the “dangerous conduct” and “irresponsible riding”.
Manzi and Fenati were riding at over 200 km/h, when Fenati reached across to grab at Manzi’s front brake lever – apparently in retaliation to an earlier incident in which Manzi attempted to pass Fenati on the inside of a turn, making contact and pushing both bikes off the track. Fenati’s move saw him black flagged by race officials, with an initial two-race ban. Now it seems unlikely he will return to Championship level racing, as his contracts with MV Agusta Forward Racing Team for the 2019 season have now been terminated.
Giovanni Castiglioni, President of MV Agusta, said: “In all my years of watching sport, I have never seen behaviour as dangerous as this. A rider who can act like this can never represent the values of our company for our brand. For this reason, we do not want him to be the rider with which MV Agusta makes its return to the World Championship.”
Giovanni Cuzari, Team Owner: “After the disgraceful episode between Romano Fenati and Stefano Manzi, it is impossible for the team to maintain its planned collaboration with the rider from Ascoli for the 2019 season. Fenati’s behaviour is incompatible with the sporting values of the Forward Racing Team and of MV Agusta. For this reason, though we bitterly regret it, we are forced to cancel our project with Fenati. Our sport is already extremely dangerous, and any act which increases the risks involved for the riders is intolerable. We cannot accept behaviour of this type from one of our future riders.”
This isn’t the first time Fenati has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons – in 2015 he was forced to apologize after kicking a fellow rider, in the same year whilst practicing race starts he turned off an opponent’s engine, and was dropped from the Sky VR46 Team for disciplinary reasons during the 2016 season.
Video footage courtesy of The Guardian.
