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Who is going to stop Valentino?

Sport

Arguably the best rider ever in history Italian Valentino Rossi is the favourite to retain his title once again this year. Many rivals are hoping to stop Valentino winning his 8^th MotoGP Championship but let’s go through some points that might demoralise more than one of them.

Rossi’s domination of the 2010 MotoGP pre-season continued when he ended first on the timesheets in the last pre season test at Sepang circuit. Previous tests, in Sepang early February and in Valencia last November, saw him finishing top and third respectively. Valentino has now topped each of the four days of winter testing in 2010 and with a best lap time of 2.00.271 in a run of 39-laps. He said "Our bike is in great form; we need to do a bit more work on the electronics but in general everything is better, especially the rear grip and the engine. We’re in great shape and this is very important at this stage of the season. I'm really looking forward to it."

Nevertheless it seems, once again, that the Ducati Marlboro Team with Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden plus the likes of Dani Pedrosa on his Honda and Yamaha “team mate” Jorge Lorenzo are among the favourites to challenge Valentino this season.  With regards to the upcoming season Stoner added “We are really satisfied with the package we have now and the progress we have made so far. If you ask me I’d say we are starting off from a stronger base than last year so now we’ll just have to wait and see if we can get straight on the pace in Qatar.”

Is it relevant to talk about the rookies this season? They are far away from challenging the Italian, probably they are even far away from challenging the top eight group in 2010. The excitement of having three of the best 250cc drivers in recent times like the Italian Simoncelli, Spaniard Bautista and 2009 World Champion Japanese Aoyama is diminished by being in teams with no successful record in MotoGP.  The only “rookie” we could think of that could challenge a top 5 finish is 2009 WSBK Champion Ben Spies. He rides for the Yamaha satellite team but he has impressed not only his own team but also the rest of the paddock as he has done very well so far in the pre season tests.

It’s difficult to predict another championship for the 7^th time MotoGP Champion but there is nothing that tells us the opposite. We might be wrong but Valentino is Valentino and there is nobody at the present moment that can ride a bike as he does even when he is reaching the end of his career. 

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