Title race still in Valentino Rossi’s hands, says Jerry Burgess

Valentino Rossi’s quest for a seventh MotoGP crown is still firmly in the Italian’s hands, despite the setback of last weekend’s Estoril clash in Portugal.
That’s the belief of Rossi’s legendary Aussie crew chief Jerry Burgess, with the 30-year-old going into the final three races of the 2009 season holding an 18-point lead over Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.
Lorenzo took a big slice out of Rossi’s points lead with his fourth win of the campaign in Portugal last weekend, with the reigning world champion struggling to a shock fourth.
But Burgess believes Rossi is still firmly in control of the world championship heading to the crucial races in Phillip Island and Sepang.
The Aussie told MCN: “If we beat Jorge twice in the last couple of races then we’ve got it back and we wouldn’t even have to race in Valencia depending on the situation. I’d still like to think when you look at the averages this year that we’ve beaten him more times than he has beaten us, so I can’t see that going out of the window. I’d be surprised if it did. If we finish right behind him in every race we’ve still got it in the bag. It’s certainly not won by a bloody long shot but we had a bad race in Estoril and a disaster in Indianapolis. If a bad race is fourth then what’s the rest of them on the grid doing?”