AUSTRALIAN Casey Stoner earned a back-to-back MotoGP win for Ducati at the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix but it was Italian Valentino Rossi who made history as he sealed a seventh premier class world title after coming in third at a rain-soaked Sepang International Circuit yesterday.

Stoner, last week’s Australian Grand Prix winner, chalked up an impressive win by an astounding 14.666sec margin ahead of Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Rossi.

Rossi’s third place was enough to defend his MotoGP world crown with one round to spare.

The Italian will go to the final round in Valencia in two weeks’ time with a total of 286 points, an unassailable lead of 41 points over team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.

Good job: Jorge Lorenzo (left) congratulates Yamaha team-mate and world champion Valentino Rossi after the race Sunday.

Rossi has now won nine world titles, including the 125cc and 250cc championships in 1997 and 1999 respectively.

There was plenty of drama on track. The start of the 21-lap race was delayed for 35 minutes after an earlier downpour.

A problem during the sighting lap for Lorenzo resulted in the Spaniard failing to join the starting grid in time and he was relegated to start from the back.

It made little difference as Lorenzo charged up to overtake pole sitter Rossi before eventually finishing the race in fourth place.

Rossi had a sluggish start and dropped to 10th as Stoner established a four-second lead at the front over Pedrosa after just two laps.

However, Rossi made his way up to fourth after eight laps and was third after Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso slid off in the next lap. From then on, he played it safe to seal the title chase.

The Italian later showed his delight in retaining the world title by doing a wheelie all the way to the finish line before joining his friends at the side of the track for a short celebration, involving a chicken dressed in the Italian’s blue and yellow colours.

On the celebration, the 30-year-old Rossi explained: “In Italy, we say an old chicken makes good soup but can no longer lay eggs. I am like the old chicken ... 30 years now ... but I have another egg. That’s nine.”

He did not hide the magnitude of his feat.

“It’s a great achievement and for me it’s the ninth championship in all classes,” he said.

Rossi also paid special tribute to his 22 year-old team-mate, who pushed him all the way in the world championship battle.

“Throughout the season, I had great rivals. At the end, especially my team-mate Jorge, who stayed very close to me, and we had some great fights.”

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