MotoGP Blog

Just past half way through the 2007 championship and Valentino Rossi is 44 points behind Casey Stoner. If Rossi is to claim the title this year, he needs to score an average of 6.2 points more than Stoner in the remaining 7 races. That’s the simple mathematics behind it - Stoner “just” needs to follow Rossi home at each race to become the champion. Of course, these things are never that simple.

Rossi is master of the psyche-out. He dominated Sete Gibernau, blew Max Biaggi away, even the latest Honda wunderkind Pedrosa was put in his place last season with a couple of aggressive overtakes and some off-hand remarks made to the press. Still, Rossi did not win last year despite being arguably the best rider the sport has seen for some time, if not all time. Hayden ground out the win when, at times, all seemed lost - the low point being when Pedrosa took out Hayden, handing Rossi a lifeline back into the 2006 championship. Hayden held his ground and was finally victorious, a fantastic achievement.

Winter testing saw Rossi riding a Yamaha carrying an image of the sword Excalibur. The legend goes that the sword is set in stone and only the true king is able to draw the blade. Rossi was simultaneously announcing his willingness to fight back and stating that he was the “true king” of MotoGP and that there is a pretender in his place for the time being. The pre-season press saw Rossi discount Hayden (another psyche-out move) by naming Pedrosa as his main competition for the year ahead. Nobody mentioned Stoner.

What was not predicted in the pre-season was the strength of the Bridgestone/Ducati duality. The two companies have a very close working relationship much like Ferrari and Bridgestone did before the new tyre rules in F1, and have become able to challenge the Michelin dominance, at least at some circuits. Their adaptation to the new tyre regulations has caught Michelin napping. Not for long will this gap exist though, you can be sure Michelin will fight back in the second half of the season.

Rossi has perhaps directed the cut and thrust of his psychological warfare in the wrong direction. His problem is that he has nothing on Stoner. Any attempts to get to the Aussie will just bounce off - Stoner doesn’t care what anyone says, he’s riding for himself and will likely prove to be well armoured even when the pressure is on in the last couple of races, should Rossi get that close.

It is early days in the Stoner career up at the sharp end. Ten races ago he was just another mid-pack runner, now he is looking a championship victory full in the face. It is almost his to lose. Valentino has found that challenges to his dominance can come from the most unlikely and unexpected places. If he was getting bored of winning, and some say he was with his flirtations with F1 and rallying, these thoughts must be far from his mind now. This is the time to draw the sword Valentino, and come out refreshed, fighting and ready to win.