MotoGP 2008 Champion

epic!




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stoner being an arse in post race interview shocker

wow, that was a really good race until stoner went off. Such great battling with rossi shame it didnt go on until end!

go stoner!!!

great fight during the start, shame stoner had to lose it

Toby Moodys after the Shanghai race Wrote:
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He was pushed around in a wheelchair for heaven's sake, and still he had time to make a joke about the cheap hotel slippers he was wearing after the race. Class.

Heroic indeed, but as I said on the TV during Saturday's qualifying broadcast when he made some mistakes, was it correct that the FIM let him ride if he couldn't operate the bike properly?

In the end it didn't matter, but just let's think about how others may feel about potentially being skittled by an out-of-control Lorenzo because he can't properly control his Yamaha.

I asked the reigning World Champion if he thought it correct that someone should be allowed to ride a 148kg, 230bhp motorcycle with knackered ankles that left him unable to walk, potentially not be able to turn the bike and potentially crashing into fit and able riders out there - like the World Champion for example - who are minding their own business.
Remember Alex Hofmann's angst last year at Laguna when even a fit and able rider brought an end to his racing career?
What happened next took my breath away.

Stoner jumped at the casual question brusquely snapping that Lorenzo was perfectly alright. "Are you kidding me?" he said, lifting a lip. "He's perfectly OK. He qualified in fourth position, for crying out loud."

Fair point, I thought. Stoner's the rider, not me. He's seen Lorenzo out there on the race track, not me from my view, 100 feet up in the Shanghai commentary box with TV screens and a grand vista for comfort.
He had been in a mood and was now vexed with me, but all I did was ask a cool, calm and rational question. But what then arrived was pretty stunning.

"It's all an act, all this rolling around in the gravel trap for five minutes, y'know?" he snapped with the eyes fixed, the lip still turned. "They've got him in a wheelchair and they're pushing him around the paddock. It's all a joke ..."
I interrupted that I'd only asked a simple question to a MotoGP rider, stressing that I had (unfortunately) never ridden a MotoGP bike and so was asking someone far more experienced than me. A World Champion, no less.

At this point LAT photographer Martin Heath was taking photos and caught the moment with me pointing out the simplicity of the question. One question.

The 22-year-old continued to have a bit of a rant.
I am pretty hard to offend and will move on pretty quickly with things like this, but as my colleague Julian Ryder will attest, it bugged me for the rest of the weekend. But can you even begin to imagine what Jorge Lorenzo will think when he hears that 'It was all an act'?

After the race Stoner went on to quip to the BBC in parc ferme that "A podium this far off is just about not worth it."
I'm sure the man in fourth, Lorenzo with ankles throbbing like hell, would love the extra three points for third place. Especially after he discovered that he had even more injuries when returning home top Spain and undergoing further X-Rays in Barcelona - damaged ligaments and tendons adding to the already painful list.

And what about the thousands of hours work that the Ducati Corse team put in to preparing a 2007 Championship bike for him, never mind a Qatar 2008 race-winning bike?

Racers are a different breed, but Stoner is tightly wound, and even some insiders from within the team say he needs to cool off a little.
So where has this come from? By not being on course to win another ten races again this year? No. Did he not think that the Japanese factories may just catch up a little over the winter? Of course he factored that in. So where has it come from?

The rumours that Rossi is getting special treatment from Bridgestone are now inevitably swirling around the press office. For crying out loud, it was only a matter of time before that one started, eh?
I don't seem to remember anyone saying that about Ducati last year when they were en route to 11 victories when Stoner outrode the rest of them fair and square. I remind you he did win the title by 125 points - five race wins!
And what's wrong with someone outriding the next guy, just as Stoner himself brilliantly did last year?

In case some riders have forgotten, Rossi is a master of out-psyching people. Think back to his battles with Max Biaggi and Sete Gibernau. Rossi even had mythical powers after Qatar 2004, when he was so peed off with Gibernau that he said after the race that the Spaniard would never win another GP. Over the next two and a bit years, he was right, psychologically crushing Gibernau at the very first race of the 2005 season with that Jerez last corner move. He beat him with one manoeuvre.

In 2008 though, the way Rossi may well have irked Stoner is by starting with Stoner's Ducati-spec tyres at the sole test the Yamaha did in November on Bridgestones. Here we are a few months later, and with just data from his own No.46 Yamaha and no others, Rossi and the crew have outfoxed the rest of them again.

The Doctor is back on form and taking the pills. Lorenzo has taken bucket worth of them over Shanghai weekend to get that incredible fourth place, while Stoner needs to take a chill pill.
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Stoner needs to @#$%& off

rossi rules, the schumacher (or senna, look at my sig) of motogp!

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I still think that Casey Stoner will win it. He has the best and most powerful bike, so he should win. His qualifying performances are great

Rossi? Bah hes not that fun to watch. Stoner is.

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Bruninho Wrote:
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> Rossi? Bah hes not that fun to watch. Stoner is.

Once again, you leave me baffled...........

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Bruno, shhh... stick to your beloved Jenson :p

Bleh everyone chose Rossi to support, I have my own opinion and i chose Casey, nothing wrong with it I prefer to watch Stoner onboard instead of Rossi, i just can't say that his racing is more entertaining than Stoner

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Its fine by me If you like to support a rider that likes to mock people that have just sufferd serious injuries or that he complians a lot when he gets owned...

Bruno, first time I saw Rossi was in 96 back in 125CC but didn't know much until I heard of him in 99, but was his fan from the beginning!

Bruninho Wrote:
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> Rossi? Bah hes not that fun to watch. Stoner is.


Now I quite like Casey Stoner, and I marginally prefer him over Rossi, but to say he's better to watch than Rossi? You must be blind. It would seem to explain a lot.

[Website]

Same as FF here. I'm a Stoner fan, and enjoy watching his aggressive riding style, but Rossi's just such a born entertainer on the track. His rides through the field are a delight to watch. He can make the most technical pass look so simple, and that's art in itself.

Never said it, so I'll add to what's already been said. Epic is too commonly a used word now. We need a new superlative to describe how good that race was.

Astounding?

Bruninho Wrote:
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> Bleh everyone chose Rossi to support, I have my
> own opinion and i chose Casey, nothing wrong with
> it I prefer to watch Stoner onboard instead of
> Rossi, i just can't say that his racing is more
> entertaining than Stoner


Oh My God!!!! Are you blind? Stoner is more entertaining??? Why??? Because he wins his races with more than 5 seconds ahead?? Or is it because he is always complaining? Rossi is perhaps the greatest rider ever and the most entertaining ever, no doubt. He is better than Casey and that's for sure!

Yay, fanboy standoff.

Rossi's not as good as he once was. He used to stand head and shoulders over everyone, regardless of bike, conditions or competitor, but now others have taken the challenge to him. He's still the best rider out there, but you can't simply belittle Stoner and Pedrosa, and Hayden a couple of year back. Stoner in particular has been stunning since he joined Ducati. You can say the bike's designed around him, but the Honda and Yamaha were designed around Rossi too, at least until this year when he decided to risk the Bridgestones.

Pedrosa has a massive advantage in his size and weight, though it's also a disadvantage under braking, and he lacks the depth of talent of the other 2, but to just write him off as a support rider is wrong. He's the sole Michelin runner who's been up around the front all season. Lorenzo was looking the same until he went and starting breaking a different bone every other event.

Don't get me wrong. Rossi is the best, and as you say possibly the best of all time - he's certainly the best rider on two wheels while I've watched bikes - but to discount a crop of riders that's his match on many days as being just down to machinery is to do both them and him a disservice. He's the best entertainer of the modern age, of that there is little doubt, but screaming at other people using multiple punctuation marks is a bit over the top.

When they were 500cc or 990cc (without the electronic aids - when it was 80% rider, 20% machine), Valentino dominated everyone. The Honda wasn't built for him (the Ducati isn't for Stoner, Stoner just was the perfect style for the bike). And Valentino gave up the best team in 2002, to go to the much weaker Yamaha and still won. Valentino is still as good as before, but now, with the electronic aids, it is like the recent past Formula 1, where the machine is much more important than the rider. The Yamaha is not as strong as the Duke. Remember Casey in the 990cc? He kept falling and falling. Pedrosa drived well but he needed a brick to climb to the bike (:P). And Hayden... the championship he won, it was more lost by Rossi then won by Nicky (Nicky is a world champion, is riding since 03 and has only won 3 races...).

And i'm not screaming at no one, but saying that Stoner is the most entertaining is a ridiculous thing. He's just like Massa, he thinks he is the best and when he loses and makes mistakes, it isn't his fault... Give us a break Casey.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2008 01:33PM by TheMaster170.

I see your Rossi and raise you a Doohan...

Mick Doohan was great but was always in the damn best bike, I still pick Rossi. And yes, I know how good Doohan actually was, I have followed Mick Doohan since about 1994 :p