Brno MotoGP: ‘Stupid’ to rule out Jorge Lorenzo says Valentino Rossi

Reigning MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi said it would be stupid to rule out Jorge Lorenzo from the 2009 MotoGP world championship race.

A 102nd victory for the Italian in Brno yesterday after another massive howler from Lorenzo moved him 50-points clear in the title race.

Rossi had produced a brilliant performance to control the race ahead of Lorenzo for the opening 17 laps before the Spaniard attacked.

But just one lap later as Rossi looked poised to attack on the brakes at Turn 3, Lorenzo crashed out of the lead for the second successive race, gifting the 30-year-old a commanding points lead with just six races remaining.

Rossi virtually has one hand on a seventh MotoGP crown now with his fourth win in the last six races moving him to 160 podium finishes.

That broke Giacomo Agostini’s previous record, he said: “This is a very important victory for us.

“Jorge had shown all weekend that he was very strong and, when we still weren’t feeling perfect after the warm-up, we decided to make one more small modification to improve the feeling with the front and the result was brilliant; my Yamaha really flew.

“I got a good start and I was able to ride exactly how I wanted, using all of the track to get the best lines.

“At the end, when Jorge passed me, I thought that the fight was starting and I was really ready for it, but then he made a mistake and crashed.

“Of course I’m sorry; it’s really bad for him but I have to say that it’s great for us because now we have an advantage of 50 points with six races to go.

“However it would be very stupid to relax now because Jorge is very strong and for sure we expect another hard fight with him in Indianapolis.

“I arrived at the top of the all-time podium list and I’m very proud of this, especially here at Brno where I took my first victory 13 years ago.”