The pair has been locked in a spellbinding battle for the opening nine rounds of the
MotoGP World Championship which looks certain to continue in the 30-lap encounter on Sunday at the challenging Sachsenring.
Twenty one year-old Stoner holds the ace cards and the championship lead however once again he arrives on the Marlboro Ducati at a track where he has never won. Rossi in contrast has won at the track four times, including three premier class victories but that made little difference to the young Australian in Barcelona and
Donington where Rossi had even better established records.
Stoner has won five of those opening races and leads Rossi by 21 points, he has been the sensation of the season riding with a maturity not often seen in one so young. He’s caught everybody, probably even Ducati, by surprise and that certainly includes seven times champion Rossi who chases his third consecutive MotoGP victory at the Sachsenring riding the Fiat Yamaha.
The Italian won the last encounter in Holland but Stoner hauled in the points with a second place. Rossi knows he must keep winning if he is going to knock Stoner off the top points table.
Last year Rossi won an amazing battle with the Gresini Honda of
Marco Melandri and the Repsol Hondas of
Nicky Hayden and
Dani Pedrosa. At the finish the four were separated by just over three tenths of a second. It could be just as close on Sunday with Pedrosa, who holds both pole and lap records at the Sachsenring and is a double 250cc winner and is third in the Championship. Plus World Champion Nicky Hayden bouncing back to form in Holland with his first podium finish of the season could ruffle a few feathers.
