Stoner - `Rossi is a worthy champion´

After finishing in second place between Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa at the A-Style Grand Prix of Japan, Casey Stoner praised the race-winning Italian and new MotoGP World Champion as he handed over his premier class crown to The Doctor.

Stoner´s team-mate Marco Melandri was an unlucky thirteenth at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit, where he will return next year as a Kawasaki rider.

Casey Stoner - second

`At the beginning of the race everything felt good although I made a couple of mistakes on a cold tyre. We were running quite a hard compound today so we needed a few laps to get it warmed up. Once we did that the lap times were good and I felt happy with my pace. Unfortunately in the second half of the race I started to get tired in the changes of direction and I was having to close the gap coming out of the corners to get into the next one - simply because I didn´t have the strength to flick the bike over with the throttle open. The lap times dropped off and when Valentino came past I couldn´t keep up. He´s had an amazing season - he only made one mistake at Assen and the rest of the time he´s been on the podium, winning races. He´s a worthy champion - eight world titles show that - and I want to congratulate him for that. I´m just disappointed that we made two mistakes in the mid-point of the season that allowed him to open up such a big advantage. Anyway, after the recent misfortune we´ve had it was important to come back here with a strong performance and some solid points. Now we can go to Australia with confidence and look to finish the season strongly.´

Marco Melandri - thirteenth

`I got a good start today but I ran off track when I was in the middle of fighting with a group of riders and lost all the positions I´d made up. It´s a shame because it is really hard for me to overtake. I lose so much time on the exit of the corners that I´m always a long way back under braking. We recovered some ground but it wasn´t enough. We´ll see how it goes in Australia, which is one of my all-time favourite tracks and a place Ducati always seem to do well at.´