"Ducati rider" you scamp. I think Marquez will be recognised as the best for many a year, however Stoner is better than his 2 championships suggest. A great rider and chucked it in far too early at 27 years of age.
He chucked it in due to health reason though, so a premature retirement but not one taken lightly. I've suffered in the past from what he retired because of and it's fkn painful. I think Marquez is just great but hopefully when it restarts the playing field will have changed.
I often wondered if simoncelli's death 7 months earlier, and the birth of stoners first child 4 months after simo's death, had any input to his retirement? There is no doubt though that stoner was one of the few riders who could wring the neck out of that ducati gp bike and make it do things others could not
The reasons he gave at the time were that the bikes were moving away from unique gp bikes and moving more into road bikes builds, the politics and he genuinely no longer had the passion to ride competitively
I seem to remember in his last season, they said he had lead every lap around Philip Island expect one since he had been in GP's. His biography is pretty good, I was always a fan of his.
I was stood at the top of Craner curves at donington for 2007 gp,he never even shut off ,just rode it ,it was bucking and weaving under him every lap,but never looked out of control,pure brilliance
Definitely my favourite rider, people hated him because he beat rossi, same as lots hate marquez now, but definitely class, could watch him and bayliss all day
I don’t think the fans helped, he reported being spat at at Donington park and booed when he was on the stage for the raffle they used to do
In his autobiography, he acknowledges during his racing years he was probably the most arrogant cvnt out there
