Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi will end his staggering 26-season career after next week’s Valencia race, and it looks very likely that he will be able to finish his final MotoGP season without getting on the podium.
The Tavullia champion hasn’t won a race since the 2017 Dutch Grand Prix and his podium appearances have declined over the years, with the last one now going back to last season’s Andalusian Grand Prix.
Currently, the “Doctor” is 21st in the world championship standings, having scored just 35 points with an eighth place in the Austrian Grand Prix as the best result of the season.
The two-time world champion Casey Stoner arrived in Portimao to visit the paddock and on Friday he was the protagonist of a press conference, in which he also had the opportunity to comment on the finale of Rossi’s career: “Everyone is made in his own way, if Valentino he still loved running, there was no reason not to “.
“But I wouldn’t have been able to do it, because for me to run was to win. I accepted the fact that I couldn’t win sometimes, but at the same time the reason I got up in the morning to go running was to win.”
“So, it would be really hard to race if I wasn’t competitive and I wasn’t in front. And I missed seeing Valentino in front.”
“In the last two or three years I would have liked to have seen him fight with the guys up front. I think the races could have been incredible, like in previous seasons.”
Stoner, Dovizioso and Rossi share the podium at the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Stoner and Rossi started a heated rivalry in the late 2000s, but the Australian reiterated that he had great respect for Rossi, believing that period was a positive one for his career.
“We’ve had some incredible battles. We’ve had a fantastic rivalry, with some good points and some not so good,” added Stoner. “Some things went my way, others didn’t. But if there is one thing that was fantastic about racing with Valentino, it is that I was able to learn from him, both on the track and off the track in the relationship with the media.” .
“He has always been very smart, very intelligent and very smart. So, I had to learn a lot of things and I think the successes I have achieved in my career are even more valuable precisely because I have conquered them in his time.”
“I really appreciate the rivalries I’ve had in my career, that’s for sure,” he concluded.
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