Rossi and Stoner pay tribute to Loris Capirossi

Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner have paid tribute to Loris Capirossi after the Italian veteran announced in Misano today that he is to retire at the end of 2011.

Capirossi confirmed his retirement plans during an emotional press conference in Misano in which he broke down in tears while explaining his decision to the media.

Capirossi is the longest-serving rider in Grand Prix history with 2011 being his 22nd season. He is poised to make his 325th start in Sunday’s 28-lap race having won 29 races.

The 38-year-old is a close pal of Italian legend Rossi having raced together since 1998 in 250s and MotoGP.

And Rossi said: “I have a lot of memories of Loris, the first ones were from the TV. I remember when he won his first race in 125s in Suzuka and also I was a great, great fan of Loris when he was against (Max) Biaggi (laughs). After I fought with him a lot in MotoGP and we had a lot of great fights to the last lap. What I remember were the fights for the 250 title in 1999 and also a lot of battles on the Honda in 500s.

But I think what the best memories are with the 1000 in 2006 in Mugello and Sepang when I fight with Loris on the last lap and had a great battle until the last braking. I think we are losing one of the best riders of this sport.”

Aussie Casey Stoner also praised Capirossi after the pair were team-mates at Ducati back in 2007.

Stoner won the world title in his first year with the Bologna factory but he said the influence of Capirossi helped him immensely with his first factory ride in MotoGP.

Stoner, who holds a commanding 44-point lead over Jorge Lorenzo in the 2011 MotoGP title chase, said: “I can easily say he’s probably the best team-mate I’ve ever had. He was very welcoming in the team when I went to Ducati and even when I had a lot of success he was always congratulating me. And I’ve never had that too much in other team-mates that followed him. They can’t really compare to him because he was always friendly to me and we’d always discuss things in testing and there was never any feud in the team. I always enjoyed my time a lot with Loris and he was definitely better to have in your garage than somewhere else. We always had a good time together and it is very sad that he’s struggled so much in these last years. But to have such a career that he has is something very special.”

For full coverage of this weekend’s Misano MotoGP race, see the September 7 issue of MCN.