They haven’t shared a track in almost a decade, but that has never made their relationship any better. Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi are two of the great names that marked a generation of the MotoGP World Championship, which ends with the departure of the Italian. Their rivalry has always been present in the paddock, assiduously taking over the current events of the competition, especially since that remembered 2008, when both met in Laguna Seca for an overtaking that would mark the history of motorcycling. Their relationship was already shaking, it worsened with that clash and ended up breaking forever at the 2011 Spanish Grand Prix when, as the Australian acclaimed Valentino, his ambition had surpassed his talent.
Just a few weeks ago they both met again in Valencia, on the occasion of Rossi’s withdrawal and, although they exchanged their helmets, Casey Stoner had no qualms about saying everything he thought of the nine-time world champion in a documentary with DAZN Italy. The Australian continues to maintain a reputation for honesty over the years and, although their rivalry has subsided with the end of the two-time champion’s career, thoughts do not change. Since he started winning races there has been a change in the way of understanding with Valentino and everything went wrong with his first World Championship in 2007, as a Ducati pilot: “He was always nice to me until I became a rival.” And, although Laguna Seca in 2008 was “a key moment”, the whole season has its weight in what has ended up being: “Every moment of that season was. We both put our heads and hearts in that championship, but he loved to play with his mind. “
Valentino Rossi won the game that year, also the next and, in 2010, Jorge Lorenzo beat them both. But Stoner hadn’t had his last word yet. The Australian said goodbye to Ducati to make the leap to Honda, a brand with which he would be able to stand up to his eternal rival, who had gone to take his place in the Borgo Panigale factory. Speaking of 2011 in the reboot that recalls Rossi’s great rivalries in MotoGP, Casey did not hesitate to confess that he enjoyed “seeing Rossi suffer at Ducati” because “he spoke very badly of me, it hurt the team most of all. He said he would change the bike for the better when it actually made it worse. “Meanwhile, the Australian enjoyed his new team. with a direct line to his second World Cup: “The Honda was great.”
“He did the same with Márquez”
But, not everything was good that season. Fate had prepared for both of them a new meeting that invaded the paddock with a new controversy. Their relationship ended in Jerez, that same season, when Rossi threw Stoner into the first corner of the Spanish track, taking him to the ground in a maneuver he couldn’t avoid for a total disaster. “In Jerez when he saw me his mind was clouded, I did not expect him to brake so soon after the straight, he fell and ran over me, “recalls the ex-driver, who also finds it difficult to recognize that Valentino was “the best pilot of his time, especially in the early 2000s. “” He was able to do things that others couldn’t, “he adds.
“It was at another level,” says Stoner, until the Italian then saw that his hegemony would be affected by the arrival of the youngest: “Then Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and I arrived. He was not at all superior to us.” And then, according to the Australian, he started an off-court game that he tried to avoid at all costs: “When you try to play these mind games with people they don’t work with, in the end you just make enemies. He made sure they saw me as his enemy, and he did the same with Marquez. From that moment on, I no longer wanted to be his friend, I no longer wanted to play fair. “ Stoner ignored those attacks that he denounces and, although they say that time heals everything, in this case the grudges may always remain.