MotoGP race director Mike Webb believes both Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez were at fault in today’s controversial Sepang MotoGP round while stewards have rejected Yamaha’s appeal against The Doctor’s penalty.

Webb said he believes the contact from Rossi which ended with Marquez crashing was deliberate but upheld Rossi’s claims that Marquez was deliberately trying to affect Rossi’s pace.

“From what we have seen from the video evidence and from talking to both riders, there is obviously a difference of opinion,” said Webb, speaking at the track.

“We believe the action of Rossi is a deliberate attempt to run Marquez very side or even off the track. He says he had no intention of causing a crash but it ended in a crash.

“We have also taken into account a lot of what Rossi says about Marquez deliberately slowing the pace and affect Rossi’s race. We believe there is some merit in that and there is fault on both sides.

“From a rules point of view, Marquez’ passes were clean, he didn’t make contact so he didn’t break any rules. Perhaps the spirit of our championship would prefer riders didn’t do this but some do and it is not against the rules.

“Rossi reacted in frustration and the final action he made was against the rules.”