Stoner reckons mistakes cost him title

The Australian, who dominated the 2007 season, lost his mathematical chance of retaining the title when he finished second behind Rossi at Motegi.

"It's not something that's news today, it's not come as a shock to lose the championship," Stoner said. "It's been coming for a little while now and our mistakes really set that in place. We knew it was out of reach.

"Valentino has ridden an amazing season. He's only really made one mistake, has always been on the podium, and has won five in a row now. It's very impressive."

Stoner had a difficult start to the year with a string of problems in the early rounds, but then took three crushing victories in the early summer and started to narrow Rossi's championship lead.

Just when it looked like he would catch and overhaul the Italian, Stoner fell during a close dice at Laguna Seca, and although he recovered to second in that race, he then crashed out of the lead in both the Czech and San Marino GPs.

"I've been a little bit disappointed in myself," Stoner admitted. "We found some form again in the middle of the season, and then I started making mistakes. It's something I don't want to do again, and I've got to learn not to make them during the races.

"After the first race in Qatar we went very downhill. We were struggling to get any kind of result. We had the camera box come off in Portugal and a few other problems, and things just didn't seem to be going our way. We had the engine break in France.

"It's just not been our year. We started to fight back as best we could, and I made some mistakes that cost us the championship. We've just got to really forget about those things and look forward."

Although his form has been affected by a recurring wrist injury recently, Stoner vowed to try and salvage some victories in the remaining three races.

"This is something we understood was going to happen, and we've just got to try and win as many races as we can between now and the end of the season, and hopefully come back next year at 100 per cent," he said.