By Glenn Freeman Saturday, July 7th 2007, 16:41 GMT
Valentino Rossi believes that Yamaha still have a lot of work to do if they are to take the championship fight to Casey Stoner for the rest of the season.
The Italian passed Stoner for the lead last time out at Assen as he charged from 11th on the grid to take the win, but he believes that Stoner and Ducati will continue to be strong at every track.
"We know that Casey will be strong again, like he is everywhere this year," said Rossi. "We've got work to do still."
The 28-year-old admitted that while he feels that Yamaha are improving as the season goes on, they can not afford to have any bad weekends from now on if they want to close the gap in the standings.
"With Casey performing at such a high level at every race, 21 points is not a small amount so we have to be at the maximum," he added.
"We're not perfect yet, especially in the wet, but we're going in the right way and we'll keep pushing. We still have half the season left."
The next round of the season takes place at the Sachsenring, where Rossi won from 11th on the grid last year.
"I'm really looking forward to Sachsenring," he said. "Last year in Germany we qualified 11th and won, and last week in Assen we did the same thing.
"Of course, I would much rather start from the front but anyway I'm feeling confident. The bike works very well there and I've had a lot of good wins there in my career."
Rossi feels Yamaha have work to do
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Rossi feels Yamaha have work to do
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Never ride faster than your guardian angel can fly
Well lets think about what happened at Assen, Rossi 11th on the grid, Stoner 2nd and Stoner by the 4th corner is 1 second in front of the 2nd place man and 9 seconds up on Rossi,. Cut to lap 7 (19 left) Stoner 1st, Rossi 2nd gap is 1.3 seconds, Stoner on a bike with 15-20HP more and the so called best tyre. It stays like this for 15 laps, Rossi obviously playing mind games in the hope that Stoner will bin it, after all 2nd class bike with the best rider is worth more than the best bike with any other rider on it., At the esses on the 22nd lap Rossi pisses all over Stoner and runs away from him.Samray wrote:Why not?Gio wrote: TBPH I don't think Stoner will even finish at Saschenring.
Now its known that Assen should favour the fastest bike, but it hasn't, so come the German GP its obvious that a bike thats lardy hasn't a hope in hell (well thats the theory) .
IMO if Rossi and Stoner were on a bike from the same manufacturer and they were set up to be best for each rider Rossi would bury him.
Regardless of what anyone might think of him as a person Rossi IS the best rider yet and it will not be in my lifetime that we will see someone as capable.
