Why Valentino Rossi's mind games against Marc Marquez backfired
Rossi's mindgames woke up a beast (Credit: Red Bull Content Pool)
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Connor Andrews is Formula 1 and MotoGP writer for GPblog and various outlets. Having worked in motorsport for 15 years for leading companies, he has interviewed the sports biggest names and attended multiple Grands Prix.
One of Valentino Rossi’s toughest rivals, Casey Stoner, has explained where it all went wrong for the MotoGP legend.
Stoner was the bitterest rival of Rossi’s career on two wheels from 2006 to 2012, with both winning two titles each.
However, as soon as Stoner retired, Rossi had a new enemy he couldn’t get the better of.
Marc Marquez has won seven premier-class titles since, and his impending eighth this season will see him leapfrog Rossi in the all-time list.
Rossi has been out promoting his new autobiography in recent weeks, reflecting on his epic but often ugly rivalry with Marquez that spilt over in 2015 when the pair collided.
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The result of their clash in the penultimate round in Malaysia was a back-of-the-grid start for Rossi at the season finale, leading to him losing the championship, something he admits still bothers him.
“He was only fighting to make me lose. And in the end, he succeeded. That's something that doesn't go away, something that still stings."- Valentino Rossi
Yet it was the build-up to that moment where Stoner says Rossi took the wrong strategy.
The Italian began accusing Marquez of interfering with his championship earlier in the season, and Stoner wasn’t surprised to see such mind games, but argues they backfired.
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Stoner claims Rossi made a mistake by turning rivals into enemies
The two-time champion said: “I learned a lot from Valentino and I dare say, as a guy, Valentino was probably fine, and he was fine with me before I raced him.
“As soon as I became a competitor, he literally just flipped a switch and went ‘I’m going to try and make an enemy out of you’.
“It’s one thing that I’ve been saying lately; the worst thing he did was make enemies. His early enemies he defeated, they weren’t as tough as us to come through, but he made an enemy out of me and Marc, two people he really shouldn’t have, in my opinion.”
Stoner then detailed how he saw Rossi take a similar path with Marquez as he had with the Australian himself.
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How Rossi's mind games backfired against Marc Marquez
He continued: “He tried to poke holes with Marc in everything and they got along well at the beginning, then he became a competitor and then all of a sudden he made an enemy of Marc.
“Marc caused him a lot of problems and may have even cost him a championship in the end.”
Marquez finished third in the 2015 championship Stoner refers to, which is often seen as Rossi’s last attempt to add to his title haul.
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Since then Marquez has dominated the sport with such determination that Stoner thinks Rossi may have provoked.
He finished: “It’s that whole thing - don’t make enemies where you don’t need to.
“As much as you think it’s doing the right thing in getting in people’s heads, at the same time, if it doesn’t work, like it didn’t with certain riders, it’s the worst thing you can ever do.
“Then those people just want to make sure you don’t succeed, even if it’s not about them succeeding; they want to make sure you don’t; they don’t want you to have your time in the spotlight.”
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