MOTOGP » Stoner: Rossi's a worthy champion

Suppo''s comments about not being able to do anything about Valentino were interesting. The BBC reported that Ducati were trying to get all 5 bikes on Michelin next year before the single tyre rule but that the deal fell through because they wanted an agreement that Michelin would not supply Honda or Yamaha for at least 3 years. Remember what Suppo said when Ducati switched to Bridgestone, it was purely to be on different tyres to Rossi. With a 3 year exclusive arrangement with Michelin, if they did manage to get a tyre advantage Rossi couldn''t just switch back. Won''t happen now anyway, but it doesn''t sound like Ducati are real confident right now.

Wrist or no wrist, I would be getting tired too after racing Rossi all season! Ultimately this has been good for Stoner - I am sure all the criticism he's copped for the stupid things he has said, along with the hard racing against Rossi, will do him good.

Interesting to note that Vale blamed the bike for 2007 - "the first 800cc M1 last year was not competitive enough" - in the 'Rossi reflects' story. Everyone says Vale always takes personal responsibility for losing! When Casey says this kind of thing he gets called a complainer - but that's partly Casey's fault after his various angry rantings, of which we've hopefully seen the last.

Well done Vale and Casey, roll on 2009!

@Waz:

I guess it was clear to everyone that the '07 Yam wasn't competitive enough: comparing it to the '07 Duc it was visibly underpowered.

I don't take that line from Rossi as an excuse: after all, at the circuits where sheer power and sheer speed weren't "an issue", Rossi *did* fight Stoner.

Now about Stoner's statements of "getting tired and letting Rossi pass" ... well, I'll keep my thoughts to myself about that "excuse", alongside with the "bug excuse"..

OTOH, Stoner and Pedrosa just climbed a notch or two in my opinion about'em with the sportsman attitude they had with Rossi after he won the race and the championship.
It was cool to see Simoncelli and Matia Pasini cheerin' him too.

Did you guys see the interview he did in parc ferme after the race??

The guy just can't bring himself to act graciously in defeat. When he was asked if, "Valentino was a worthy Champion?" he had to pause and hesitate before he grudgingly agreed to the inteviewers statement.

People dislike Hamilton in F1 saying he is arogant but I noticed yesterday that without being asked and bearing in mind the history between Alonso and himself he gave credit to both Alonso and Rosberg for a great drive in the post race press conference.

Enough said!

Lexington: My take on that was that he thought it was a stupid question, having just enthusiastically congratulated Rossi both on track and in parc ferme. You could pick it by the look on his face. A stupid question sometimes takes a second to get your head around, as you would understand. Sometimes stupid comments do the same thing right??.

@Superbockster:

"I don't take that line from Rossi as an excuse"

No, of course you don't. My point exactly.

There are comments and then there are excuses.

@waz

Of course I don't.
And I believe that anyone with more than a couple braincells won't either.

One thing is *everyone* watching basically every race in '07 and seeing a Duc literally fly-pass the Yam in every straigh. You don't have to be told that "the Yam is visibly slower", do you ?

Another is a "phantom bug hit" on the visor (tearoffs anyone ?) or a sudden "mid-race tiredness" or "a wrong qualifier" or even a fantastic "unreported ride height change" ...

Everyone can choose what to believe.
I'll stick with the obvious.

"V"

With changing of specs 1 bike will always be better than the other as in the 990s the Honda killed eveyone but they couldn't transfer that to the 800s staight away and the Ducati caught everyone out because the others didn't think the Ducati would be a major contender straight away. But you still have to have someone to ride the bike to it's potential as Stoner showed, otherwise all the Ducatis would have filled the podiums like the Hondas did.And now Yamaha, Honda and Ducati are on the same page we should see a great 2009 and hope Suzuki and Kawasaki can catch up as well

Stoner was pressured into this, he knows that Valentino is not a worthy champion, he is a whinger who complains until he gets his way, adn then dorna pressures it all to make sure the italians get their champion