You’ve got to love those wily Italian journalists, they sure love to try stir up the rivalry pot and try pitting riders against each other to get some interesting and unguarded words out of them, especially before a Grand Prix weekend and after ‘The Incident’ in Jerez.
It basically boils down to an interview that Casey Stoner gave to Spanish website Marca.
com where he gets in a couple of digs at Valentino Rossi and his crewchief Jeremy Burgess, and naturally the Italian press couldn’t wait to relay the interview to Rossi to get his opinion on Stoner’s words as soon as they got to Estoril.
Stoner said, “I was criticized at the end of 2010, saying that I hadn’t exploited the GP10’s potential.
Burgess said that needed only 18 seconds to fix it.
Now he and Valentino have been working for months now and haven’t improved.
They should keep their mouths shut because they’ve don’t understand how to ride a Ducati.
Maybe they’ll respect me more now.
” “Valentino chose to go to Ducati because he couldn’t stay in Yamaha as Lorenzo would have won the world title so his contract could no longer be justified,” continued Stoner.
“He couldn’t go back to Honda.
Then he talked with Jeremy who gave him technical guarantees that are now less easy to achieve than they expected.
“So how did Rossi react to all this? Here are his words,“I frankly can’t remember ever having criticized Stoner on how he rode the Ducati, nor do I known if someone from my team has ever done so.
I don’t think so, but I’m not responsible.
However the the potential of the bike until the last three races was difficult to understand.
”“I don’t think Stoner had an incredible season, in the end I finished in the world standings in front of him even if I had broken a leg.
I certainly have other needs than Stoner, but there’s nothing wrong in this.
I’m sorry for the mess I made in Jerez, because it was an opportunity for me to pick up more points and that I involved Casey.
Unfortunately sometimes these things happen.
”