Everyone gasped at the superb racing we saw from these two top riders in Laguna Seca where not only was the winning of the race at stake but also essential points for this years’ Moto GP championship title – won by Stoner last year and two years since Rossi had that honour.

Since then there has been a lot of fallout following Stoner’s comments about some of Rossi’s manoeuvres especially in the British press and from their readers not to mention the commentators on British Eurosport, whose obvious love of Rossi frankly verges on me reaching for the sick bag!

However, lets consider a few things:

Rossi is seven times World Champion and there is no doubt that he has an excellent record and he has given us some extremely exciting racing in years gone by.

Rossi has not won a championship for a couple of years and he is so determined this year that he has even changed tyre manufacturers.

Stoner is himself an established rider in the new breed of young riders who are not only familiar with traction control but are also nipping at Rossi’s heels waiting to take the coveted Moto GP title for themselves -something he achieved in style last year and after a shaky start this year he has been looking like the champion he is in the last few rounds.

There is no doubt that Casey and the Ducati is a match made in heaven, the like we haven’t seen since the dominance of Bayliss and Ducati in World Superbikes.

This is not the first time Valentino Rossi has faced accusations of passes that go beyond aggressive riding, notably from Max Biaggi and Sete Gibernau. Now add Casey Stoner to that count. Sour grapes or valid gripes?

Valentino Rossi has the ability, consciously or unconsciously, to get into the heads of his rivals, but Casey Stoner is a different kettle of fish altogether, does that gall Rossi?

So, after the summer break, we were all waiting for round two……

Casey was on the pace all weekend, despite a qualifying session that was more like swimming than motorcycle racing, and he managed to bag pole position again.

Valentino had made it public knowledge that his intention was to get on the front row to be in with a chance of keeping Casey in his sights and qualifying in second place on the grid gave him the advantage he was hoping for.

All was going to plan for the superb man, machine combination that is Stoner on the Ducati and Rossi was able to keep him in his sights whilst they put 10+ seconds between them and the rest of the field.
Then disaster struck for Casey when he uncharacteristically crashed out on lap seven when he lost the front wheel. The Ducati was far too damaged to re-mount and complete the race. What a disappointment.

Casey not only handed the race win to Rossi but also another 25 points, so Rossi’s championship lead has stretched to 50 points and I would say that makes him virtually unstoppable this season.

However, lets not forget that Rossi has made some elementary mistakes this year under pressure, so lets not write Stoner off just yet!