page_title: Valentino Rossi
section_title: Late 2000s and early 2010s: Stoner and Lorenzo
hierarchical_section_title: Valentino Rossi / Rivalries / Late 2000s and early 2010s: Stoner and Lorenzo
caption_attribution_description: English: Casey Stoner, riding his Marlboro Ducati, being chased down by the FIAT Yamaha of Valentino Rossi at the 2008 British Grand Prix.
context_page_description: Valentino Rossi is an Italian professional motorcycle road racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion.
  Rossi is widely considered one of the greatest motorcycle racers of all time, with nine Grand Prix World Championships to his name – seven of which are in the premier class. Rossi is also the only road racer to have competed in 400 or more Grands Prix. He has ridden with number 46 his entire career, including the years when he was defending his title.
  After graduating to the premier class in 2000, Rossi won the 500cc World Championship and 8 Hours of Suzuka with Honda in 2001, the MotoGP World Championships in 2002 and 2003 and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha. All of those titles were won in a dominant manner, being decided before the final round on all occasions. He lost the 2006 title with a crash in the final round at Valencia, ceding the title to his former Honda teammate Nicky Hayden. In 2007 Rossi and Yamaha were of no match to a dominant Casey Stoner on a Ducati, and Rossi ultimately finished a then career-low third overall.
context_section_description: Casey Stoner
  Casey Stoner emerged as a rival for Rossi when he moved from the LCR team in 2006 to the official Factory Ducati team in 2007. Over the course of the season, Rossi and Stoner frequently battled for wins - particularly in Catalunya and China - but the young Australian had the better of Rossi in many of the races thanks to the strong Ducati and Bridgestone combination and the underperforming Yamaha Rossi had, resulting in his claiming of the 2007 MotoGP World Championship title.
  Stoner's and Rossi's rivalry came to a dramatic climax at the 2008 United States GP. After numerous position changes, Rossi overtook Stoner at the Corkscrew. The move caused Rossi to run into the dirt and broken pavement on the inside of the right turn, and his rejoining the track came close to causing a collision between the two riders. A few laps later, Stoner went into the gravel on the slow entry into turn 11 whilst outbraking himself, almost crashing into Rossi in the process. Stoner picked up his bike to finish second, while Rossi took the win. 
  When Rossi wanted to shake Stoner's hand at parc ferme, he angrily refused. At the press conference, Stoner claimed that some of Rossi's moves were considered "aggressive" but Rossi called it "just racing". After this, Casey Stoner made the comment "I have lost respect for one of the greatest riders in history". For the comment, Stoner apologised to Rossi at the next race.
  The rivalry cooled down when Rossi won back-to-back titles in 2008 and 2009 whilst Stoner struggled with the Ducati for multiple seasons, suffered from a mystery illness and various crashes - despite still battling hard with Rossi on some occasions.
  After Rossi moved to the Factory Ducati team and Stoner to the Factory Honda team in 2011, tensions would once again rise at the 2011 Spanish round when Rossi collided with Stoner, causing him to crash out of the race while Rossi got going again and finished fifth. After the race, Rossi went to Stoner to apologise for the incident, who smiled and accepted Rossi's handshake. However, Stoner told Rossi that "Your ambition outweighs your talent" during the brief exchange, in which he also asked about Rossi's shoulder. Stoner later apologised for this comment. After this, tensions between both riders would ease once more when Stoner won his 2011 World Championship title whilst Rossi struggled on an underperforming Ducati for the rest of the season.
  However, tensions would rise once more at the 2012 French race where Rossi and Stoner once again came to blows when they battled hard in the wet conditions, with Rossi passing and repassing Stoner on the first corners of the Le Mans track before he permanently overtook him on the last lap to cross the line in second place. When Rossi caught Stoner, he thought of his mistake in Jerez last year and was more cautious because of it.
  Rossi and Stoner's rivalry ended permanently when Stoner retired in 2012 and Rossi returned to the Factory Yamaha team in 2013.
  Jorge Lorenzo
  In 2008, Jorge Lorenzo joined Rossi in the Factory Yamaha team which started a new rivalry. Initially, relationships were friendly; Rossi won the 2008 title while Lorenzo suffered two serious crashes at Shanghai and Laguna Seca which prevented any serious rivalries from ever starting to begin with, Rossi more concentrated on his rivalry with Casey Stoner at the time.
  In 2009, Rossi and Lorenzo resumed hostilities with Rossi emerging as champion again. Over the course of the season, Rossi defeated Lorenzo in several tight battles - such as Assen, Sachsenring, Valencia and, most memorably, Lorenzo's home race in Catalunya. Both were battling hard on the Catalan circuit, with Lorenzo taking the lead on the final lap. Rossi tried to overtake him in the usual spots but failed, with many assuming Lorenzo was going to win the race. However, Rossi managed to pass him going into the final corner, where many assumed overtaking was impossible, to take an unlikely victory.
  In 2010, Lorenzo finally emerged victorious in the championship battle after Rossi first injured his shoulder a
caption: Stoner and Rossi at the 2008 British Grand Prix
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