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War of Words Fiorani said. "Then Fausto Gres ini [of Gibernau's team] and Livio Suppo [Ducati team manager] came to me to discuss the situation. So we asked Brivio to come and speak wit h us for a meeting." This lively discussion took place on pit lane. "I said, 'You did something that is against the rules. Clean ing the grid is one thing, but laying down rub ber is another,''' Fiora ni said. "I said we wanted to, protest and to ask race direction to apply a financial penalty - a fine. But the others said that you can only protest, not suggest a penalty. That is up to race direction." All th ree teams - Repsol Honda , Telef6nica MoviStar Honda and Marlboro Ducati - prepared written protests. All were copies of that draft ed by Repsol Honda, but Ducati added an extra paragraph complaining about Max Biaggi's crew sweeping his position . This was confirmed by IRTA general secretary Mike Trimby. "For any protest, IRTA need D acing's latest grudge match entered its I'second round at the Malaysia Grand Prix on October 8 at a packed pre -event press conference, where Sete Gibernau and Valentino Rossi met for the first time since the latter's blistering attack in Qatar. Along with sideswipes at race officials and Honda, Rossi blamed Gibernau for the protest from Repsol Honda that saw six seconds added to his qualifying time , putting him to the back of the grid. "He is a bastard and a spy," he told the Italian press . "I have been looking for a reason not to talk to him again, and today he gave it to me." Rossi was late for the conference, by which time the highly art iculate and multilingual Gibernau was in full flow. Asked what he thought of the comments, he replied: "I've been trying to use my MP3 not to hear too much . last weekend was hard for everybody, and more for Valentino. I've been in that situation, and right after it's happened, you're unde r big pre ssure and your blood is boiling. Whatever he said, I don't take it into account. We all know w ho he is - he is a is incredible is the way we lost them. But for me it wou ld have been worse if Sete had won and we had finished fourth," Asked whether the intervening week had coo led his temper, he said: "I stand by everything I said at Qatar. " But he was clearly not anxious to talk. Gibernau remained voluble. "We never protested from our side," he said (a com ment that turned out to be at best disingen- uous - see below). "I am on the safety committee, and 1actua lly suggested to IRTA that the whole starting grid shou ld be cleaned because it wou ld be safer for everybody. I even wanted them to get the M3 (the BMW safety car) to spin its wheels on the grid , but that was blocked . But it wasn't me who wanted the pro test to go ahead . That wou ld be a contradiction. The pro test was made by Repsol Honda , for the Honda factory (again, see below). Am I a Honda factory rider? No. Of course, I was not the one who pushed it. I don't think the penaity was fair to Valentino, but riders have to take the bad as well as the good ." Whe n asked what he t hought abo ut Rossi's statement that he wo uld not speak to good guy." Rossi was having nothing of the soft soap, however. H e arrived five minutes Or not , it was said, if Ross i isn talking to 't late, glowering , his eyes grim as he took off his dark glasses. "What happened is still incredible to me," he said. "We lost 25 points, but w hat 6 him again, he answered, "Th at is a matter him. "Well, then it is a matter between Valentino and himself," said Gibernau, to a ripple of laughter, as Rossi gave a hollow smile. between me and Valentino," he replied . OOOBER 20,2004 • CYCLE NEWS Gibernau was last year nicknamed "Hollywood " by Rossi, for his histrionics at Motegi last year, where his complaints were a major factor in the disqualification of rostr um finisher Tamada. All agreed that the media- frie ndly Spaniard had won the press conference. Rossi, on the other hand, pro bably preferred to win the race - which he wou ld end up doing a few days later. As it turns out, Gibernau's team boss Fausto Gresini was one of three team man- agers who supported the protest - and he would have put his name to it, if not persuaded by circumstances not to do so. The same applied to Ducati team boss Livio Suppo . HRC sporting manager Carlo Fiorani explained the sequence of events. "I neve r spoke with Sete, but I did speak with Fausto Gresini ,' he said. "Whe n I arrived on race morning, Shoji Tachikawa [HRC MotoGP manager] said to me : 'We have an issue ,' He had a photograph of the rubber that he showed me . It was not just a line of rubber, but t he whole grid spot inside the paint. By that time, Davide Brivio [Yamaha team manager] had already asked the track organizers to clean the rubber away," Brivio to ld Fiorani and others that he'd to underwrite the protest fee [1000 Swiss Francs], and all three asked for that," Trimby said. "We informed Paul Butler [race director] , who pointed out that for one offence only one protest was nec- essary. To have three would be over-egging the pudding." Fiorani volunteered Repsol Honda's protest as the one to go forward, and vclunteered a strong defense against any criticism. "I don't like to hear that we have done something wrong or picked out Rossi," Fiorani said. "I am like a policeman . If I see somebody go through a red light, I have to give him a ticket, even ifhe is my friend. This is not like wrestling, which is only a show. This isa sport,and we musthave rules." Rossi was punished under the general sporting code , Biaggi under a rule that specifically forbids sweeping the track - a practice that many teams have done in the past, along with drying paint on wet grids. He was unlucky to be the one to pay the pena lty. Cleaning a slippery grid has clear safety implications, as much asimprovinga rider's start. "The rule about sweeping the track was only put in to prevent organizers from been unaware of his pit crew 's action and cleaning tracks after fresh rubber has been laid on the racing line," race director Paul Butler said. "We've never punished any believed that some outs ider had tampered with Rossi's grid position to frame him! rider or team for it before because there has never been a protest before ." "We said that this was not correct," He agreed that from now on , nobody 40th Anniversary