Rossi vs Stoner - the aftermath.

A fair assumption of one of the best tactical races i have seen in a long, long time, both Stoner and rossi used their strengths to try to win the race.

I just wish Stoner would accept the fact, that he was beaten by a better rider/tactic today, pity we have to wait until the 17th August, i hope it will be as thrilling as todays race.

Being a GP fan for longer than i care to mention, the sport needs atleast two riders who will hang it out there for the ultimate prize, i've seen the Spencer / Roberts, Gardner, Doohan, Rainey, Schwantz, Lawson battles produce some of the best racing i have ever seen, let's hope this cycle is beginning again.

I think this is a good summation of what I saw. If Stoner had been trained by wiser heads, he would not have showed Rossi his cards until the last lap. The only time you have to be in front is at the chequered flag. He had the tool in his kit to do that, he just did not use it correctly, which resulted in a great show for the fans and a win to a technically smarter rider. I'm sure Eddie Lawson would have been impressed by Rossi. It may have reminded him how Rainey beat him at Hockenheim in 1989. I didn't see any dangerous passes, apart from Rossi's early mistake at the Corkscrew. And it was a mistake in the heat of battle.

How sad Ray, Vale deliberatly riding into Casey is dirty, your sad if you think that behavior is good tactics, Casey made his own mistake thats why he lost.

Casey admited his mistake, where is the denial......

Wake up to yourself, you give the Rossi fan base a bad character.

Great race.

I question whether Rossi would be so positive if he was the one being blocked from passing.

Still great racing from two great riders.

First its was Max Bee-ochy.... bye-bye... then Geber-Who... now its Stoner turn...
the rest of the season is going to fun...

I dunno with you guys sometimes, whether you have just landed here and watched your first ever MotoGP season or if you have followed the GP scene since the late 70's such as myself.

I remember Spencer putting Kenny Snr into the dirt in the race for the 83 world championship and Kenny later in an interview saying he underestimated how much he (Spencer) wanted it, Kenny didn't start banging on about Spencer being a dirty rider.

Could the same be said about Rossi & Stoner?

How bad do these guys want to win?
and as for deliberately riding into Casey, there was no contact whatsoever in any of these moves by Rossi, Rossi overshot one turn into the Corkscrew, so what?
That is racing.

This is racing! And what did you say 'We'll see...' ? What? Didn't you see the race from your bike, Stoner? Remember one thing: the fastest bike doesn't always win. So do not expect others who aren't racing with bikes as fast as you to just give way. Why? Because THIS IS RACING!

Your attitude is pathetic. This is not what you would do to win the fans' heart. Grow up, Casey!

Ace, i have seen many fantastic riders in GP's over the years, my favorite rider of all time being Freddie Spencer, followed closely by Schwantz thats two riders in nearly 30 years of GP watching that have struck a cord with me.

Rossi is an immense talent and i enjoy watching him, but is only 3rd in my all time list of great GP riders from the period i have been following Gp's.

And while you try and intimate that i am one of the blind Rossi followers, i think i know when i see a memorable rider, which Rossi is, if Stoner doesn't change his tact, he will lend up alongside the Criville's and Gibernau's of GP racing.

Why has Rossi waited until now to start racing?

He should be in that frame of mind all the time.

Finally we have someone who can take it to Rossi.Pedrosa would have shut up shop and settled for second. Why is it when Stoner says something he's moaning,he has nothing on some people out there.He admitted he overcooked the corner,he thought Rossi made a overtaking move he didn't like so he said it,big deal,if there is one guy riding in Motogp that hasn't said something that other people will consider whinging please point him out.Nobody likes to loose they are all there to try and win otherwise they may as well go home. Two exceptional riders giving it all to win and us fans the entertainment we have waited years for rather than the Rossi show which got as predictable as the Doohan years.

Ray, except that Stoner has been actually racing Rossi, man-on-man, more times than Criville ever raced Doohan. Gibernau did a good job on the Honda V-twin, struggled on the Suzuki (as everyone does) and then got shoulder charged out of a race win before getting into a mess with his team-mate at the start of a race and being out of action for a while. Stoner is a determined and talented little bugger. Like him or not. And he's prepared to do what none of the other Ducati riders are prepared to do, wring its neck and shoot for race wins. So in my book, he's well ahead of Criville and Gibernau, and if he calms down, he could be world champ again. He's a bit like WG, the way he rides that Duc.

... and Casey wonders why he gets booed at tracks like Donington. I could not believe my ears when he claimed to be so experienced at all levels and that today was just "too much" much for him. What is wrong with this kid? Does he not remember how much of a hack he was in 125s and 250s? Does he not remember how he was a torpedo in his first year of Motogp, taking out Giberneau, for example?

I agree with everyone about the "old days", and frankly I hope that today was foreshadowing for the rest of the year. I have not enjoyed a race so much in so long. Casey should realize the biggest mistake he made was letting Rossi and everyone else know that Rossi got to him today. It's over...

Livio Suppo from Ducati dissed Rossi also.

Casey suggesting Valentino should be penalised, just shows up what a sore loser he is. Casey had the bike to win, after a slight error, Casey put the fastest lap of the race in to catch Rossi back up. Knowing he had the fastest bike, he had the race in the bag. But he had to ride off the track...nice one

The on-board camera on the M1 showed Rossi's rear tyre was shredding. Stoner would have won, but he made the mistake, he drove off into the gravel and fell off!

Decent sporting blokes like Bayliss, Corser would shrug, and move on. Casey said he 'lost count' the number of times he was pushed into the gravel!

When beaten - lose graciously.

Burgess further brushed off the accusation of over-stepping the overtaking mark, stating that: 'I think that if Casey had raced in the 80´s and 90´s with Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Rainey and Mick Doohan, then he´d have seen that kind sort of thing every week. It might not have been what he was expecting: probably expected to win the race easily as he had dominated in the practices.´

Rossi as predictable as Doohan....lol

Tell me what your drinking fella.

You are telling me you prefered the racing when Criville and a bunch of Spanish no hopers were flooding the 500 class, than the period since Rossi had entered the top class?

Rossi just made the rest of the 500 class rider look as poor as they were and to some extent the MotoGP class is still poor in the depth of talent as compared to the late 80's early 90's period.

You can't blame Rossi for winning 5 MotoGP titles, you can only blame the other riders for not being up to it.

Kiwi,

Thats a fair comment, but i think one world championship winning season does not maketh the man.

Lets see where he is in 3 or 4 years time and if his consistancy matches his talent.

Rossi's already done his bird, he really has nothing left to prove in racing, he did what Doohan failed to do and that was swap bikes and still win, Rossi just rasied the bar for everyone coming into the sport, even if Stoner wins 3 world titles on the bounce, fans will still want to see him swap to another bike make to see if he could win on that also and rank him as G.O.A.T.

Ace27, here is what Mladin said about the race:
"Maybe, the best individual motorcycle race I've ever seen in my life, what he did out there today. He had no business winning that race today. It was pretty impressive. Pretty hard not to be inspired by that."

Please go back riding your Donkeyati and let real racer do the talking.

Stoner is a fantastic rider and just needs more experience to keep his cool like kool kiwi mentioned. Rossi - phenomenal..

What's disappointing about Stoner's remarks is that he seems oblivious today to the fact that he was a protagonist in the best race since the 800s started. This is the kind of race fans have been craving since the 990s were put out to pasture. In the past Dani Pedrosa has made similar remarks and it's worrying to think that the younger generation do not like to get their hands dirty. Both Pedrosa and Stoner like to win their races by just getting out in front and laying down good lap times. That's great for them but it absolutely kills the show. In the long term if the future riders of motogp share Stoner's and Pedrosa's attitude, this sport will die.

Detailed accounts of what both Casey and Rossi said. Can you believe Casey is citing a fine he received a couple years ago as an excuse for why he won't be more aggressive?

Nice one, Casey.

He is at the top level of motorcycle racing and yet he has such an amateur attitude. He can win another World Championship if he wants... in ten years no one will talk about Casey Stoner other than to point out examples of how to be a sore loser and an unpopular Champion.

To think I've been "trying" to like this guy for the past two years, because he really is talented. What a joke!

way to go rossi, legal blocking is perfectly fine.. and of course it is the only way to beat a faster motorcycle..

but then again, stoner got a finelooking wife and not rossi..