With just 18 points separating the two Fiat Yamaha riders before the race at Phillip Island, Valentino Rossi needed to take advantage of Lorenzo’s unfortunate incident to further detach himself in the championship standings.
"These 20 points are so important for my championship," said Rossi. "Now we have a 38 point advantage with two races to go and we will try to make it better next week at Sepang.”
The Italian said he meant to overpass Stoner at some point in the race, but that would have meant taking unnecessary risks.
"There was one part of the race where maybe it was possible to try to attack, but I gave the maximum three or four laps from the end to get behind him again, but in the end it was too risky,” revealed the Yamaha rider.
"It was very difficult, especially because Casey made a huge rhythm in front. But my settings were good so I tried to follow him at 100 per cent while also remembering not to make any mistakes for the championship after the crash by Lorenzo,” continued Valentino Rossi.
The Fiat Yamaha rider admitted Casey Stoner deserved the win and revealed he had really enjoyed the race. "It was a great battle and great enjoyment on the bike because we had a lot of slides and big, big pace to the end. I tried,” said Rossi. “Anyway, Casey did a great race."
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