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To me it appears that Rossi like most of the other Ducati pilots is just not prepared to push the Ducati right onto the knife edge to make teh bike a winner.
There is a quote by a Forumla 1 driver (I can't remember who) when he was talking about Gilles Villeneuve.
'Of all of us Gilles was the one who was clearly working without a saftey net'
This was when talking how hard Gilles pushed to make some pretty average Ferraris go very fast.
I think this is exactly what we are seeing here with Stoner and Rossi on the Duke. Casey appears to have not problem/fear riding a bike at the very limit all the time whereas the other riders seem to be able to go there but not for a prolonged period of time. Its that prolonged period of pushing that makes the Duke a winner. It gan't be ridden a 8 or 9 tenths. It a bike that has to be ridden at ten tenths ALL the time. And Stoner is the only guy who was/is prepared to ride it like that. Hindsite is a wonderful thing After Laguna in 08 everyone was saying that Rossi had got into Stoners head because he fell off while leading the next 2 races. Funnily enough those 2 crashes were both front end washouts. A Ducati trait that is still a problem today (Ask Rossi) It was just a case of Stoner pushing at 10/10 to make the bike competative and coming unstuck
Having said that I also think that Rossi is a victim of his own success / legend. Rossi is heralded as the GOAT and a man who can do anything on a bike. But is he really. I don't think Rossi has ever had to push a bike as hard as he has in the last few year to beat/keep up with riders with real talent.
He is clearly a great rider but for the first half of his 500/MotoGP carrear his only opposition was Kenny Roberts Jr, Biaggi and Gibernau. These guys while good riders are hardly in the realm of Lorenzo/Stoner/Pedrosa. And I understand you can only beat the guys you are on the track with at the time, but his legend was established against lesser riders. It's much the same as with Mick Doohan. He started his carrear agianst the likes of Gardner/Rainey/Scwantz/Lawson and was on par with these guys. But once they retired he dominated against the likes of Criville and Biaggi. And as Mick said "What do you want me to do slow down ???"
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