Wednesday, October 1 2008 -- Casey Stoner watched the change of guard as Valentino Rossi took over the world title in Japan, on Sunday. Ironically, the country was the same as where Stoner had himself sealed the deal last year. Stoner finished in Second Place in Japan and was all praises for the Italian and his driving skills. Marco Melandri, Stoner's teammate finished thirteenth at Motegi.

At the post race conference, Stoner had this to say about the Sunday race, "At the beginning of the race everything felt good although I made a couple of mistakes on a cold tyre. We were running quite a hard compound today so we needed a few laps to get it warmed up. Once we did that the lap times were good and I felt happy with my pace. Unfortunately in the second half of the race I started to get tired in the changes of direction and I was having to close the gap coming out of the corners to get into the next one - simply because I didn't have the strength to flick the bike over with the throttle open. The lap times dropped off and when Valentino came past I couldn't keep up. He's had an amazing season - he only made one mistake at Assen and the rest of the time he's been on the podium, winning races. He's a worthy champion - eight world titles show that - and I want to congratulate him for that. I'm just disappointed that we made two mistakes in the mid-point of the season that allowed him to open up such a big advantage. Anyway, after the recent misfortune we've had it was important to come back here with a strong performance and some solid points. Now we can go to Australia with confidence and look to finish the season strongly."

Marco Melandri said, "I got a good start today but I ran off track when I was in the middle of fighting with a group of riders and lost all the positions I'd made up. It's a shame because it is really hard for me to overtake. I lose so much time on the exit of the corners that I'm always a long way back under braking. We recovered some ground but it wasn't enough. We'll see how it goes in Australia, which is one of my all-time favourite tracks and a place Ducati always seem to do well at."