Stoner acknowledges near-impossibility of Rossi catch-up

Having stated earlier this week that he would not be giving up easily in the pursuit of World Championship leader Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner admitted on Thursday that the Italian´s legacy made him an extra-difficult foe with whom to tussle for the title.

Stoner trails his rival by 50 points as the series arrives in Misano, and at the previous round in Brno he saw the biggest blow yet to his championship challenge with a DNF. The Ducati Marlboro man paid tribute to Rossi´s talents whilst sat alongside him in the pre-event press conference on Thursday, showing that there remains a high level of respect between the two.

`Chasing the championship with this many points between us is maybe possible with other riders, but with Valentino it´s nearly impossible,´ acknowledged the 22 year-old, winner of last year´s race at Misano from pole position.

`We´ve got six races to go, and we´ve just got to look at them now. There´s a huge gap between myself and Valentino in the standings, so now is the time for us to get our heads down.´

The circuit will only be slightly different to that at which Stoner stormed to victory in 2007, with a modification to an early corner. He had yet to perform a sighting lap at the time of the press conference.

`We have to check out the new turn two; I heard that it´s a lot tighter. Last year was a good race for us, and we'll see what happens this year,´ concluded the Ducati star.