"I made a mistake going into the last corner and I hit a big patch of sand instead of dirt and just lost the front of the bike when I was trying to get back on track," confirmed Casey. "I have to deal with it."
Ducati
MotoGP Project Leader Livio Suppo backed his riders comments, calling some of Rossi's moves 'over the limit' whilst highlighting the exceptional talents of Rossi, Stoner and the absent
Dani Pedrosa.
"It was a very tight race, spectacular to watch and evidence that it is not only the electronics that make the difference in this sport, but two riders who are one step above everybody else at the moment," he said. "Dani is also a part of that small club but unfortunately he wasn't here today.
"After three straight victories for Casey, today was Valentino's turn, that's fair enough. For sure if Casey had not shown a tremendous coolness and maturity, there would have been at least a few occasions in which they both could have crashed as a result of manoeuvres which, in our opinion, were a bit over the limit on Vale's part," he declared.
Rossi responded to the criticism by saying: "I need the tactics I need to win, and for sure, we make it hard for overtaking... I am sorry that Casey thinks some of [the passes] were a bit strong but I really don't agree; I passed only on the brakes, I braked in the same places every time [some had suggested Rossi brake-checked Stoner] and we never touched. Of course this was an aggressive race, but it was definitely a fair one... I enjoyed the battle, anyway."
Valentino, the master mind games, is unlikely to lose sleep over disapproving words from either Stoner or Suppo and was soon reliving 'a hell of a battle'.
"For me this race is fantastic," he said. "It is my first victory in Laguna Seca. We made some modifications to our bike after warm-up and these gave us the last few tenths that enabled me to fight with Casey today.
