It would be foolish to suggest that Valentino Rossi is becoming an ailing force, but “The Doctor” has been getting a repeat prescription of his own medicine for more than year and has never had a headache like this.

Last season he failed to win the MotoGP title for the first time since his debut in 2000 and now he has two 21-year-olds, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, trying to send him hurtling prematurely into old age. Stoner’s victory in yesterday’s Chinese Grand Prix was his third in four races, extending his championship lead over Rossi, 28, to 15 points and prompted sour gripes from the Italian about the Ducati’s superior power.

However, the man who engineered all of Rossi’s titles, and five for Mick Doohan beforehand, vigorously defended the Italian and said that he remains the man to beat. “There is no show without Punch,” Jerry Burgess, the Fiat Yamaha technical director, said. Burgess gave a revealing insight into what makes Rossi tick and rejected the suggestion that the mask of invincibility had slipped for good. “I don’t think he lost his title in 2006,” he said. “Yamaha didn’t give him what he needed and a little bit more at any one race would have been enough.

“We had a chatter [motorcycle intercom] problem all year, he got knocked off in the first race, he broke an engine in Le Mans, a wrist in Assen. I think Yamaha took their finger off the pulse, but Valentino never stopped trying and we would not have been as close as we were if it wasn’t for him.”

Burgess, an amiable Australian, also suggested that Yamaha and Michelin need to question the demands they place on Rossi, whose skill at developing a bike means that he is flogged on the testing circuit. “He needs a break,” he said. “Because of who he is, Michelin rely very heavily on his input. They want him to do the bulk of the work, but you don’t want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.”

Yamaha are worried by Ducati’s blistering start to the season, but Burgess has been around long enough to colour his worries with perspective and he insists that Rossi remains the best rider on the planet. “Guys I’ve worked with have had the intelligence to go into business after they’ve finished their careers,” he said. “It’s about mental agility. This sport is a constant correction of small mistakes. I don’t see them because they’re tiny, but Valentino can feel them. No two snowflakes are the same and no two laps are, but the closer they are the more information a rider gathers.”

Burgess says that greatness is fundamentally a matter of mental application, a theory that convinces him that Rossi would have been a star had he accepted Ferrari’s advances and moved into Formula One.

“Absolutely without question he would have been a success and I know from speaking to Ferrari people that they were very impressed,” Burgess said. “It comes down to those little motives that drive the section of his brain which processes information a lot quicker than you or I. It’s clear that the electric pulses that send messages to Valentino, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer are quicker than in ordinary people.

“If Valentino had started playing tennis when he was 3 and [Roger] Federer had a motorbike then the results would have been the same, but the names would be different; Valentino would be the Wimbledon champion.”

Burgess has been impressed by his compatriot, Stoner, and has even sees shades of the legendary Doohan in him. “Casey’s got a bit of arrogance about him and Mick had a lot of that,” Burgess said. “Wayne Gardner [the champion in 1987] was a worrier and you’d have to remind him that he’d already beaten everyone he was racing against. Do that to Mick and he’d look at you with burning eyes and say, ‘So don’t you think I can do it, JB?’ That’s the thing with people like Mick and Valentino — they never doubt themselves.”

It is a trait that will be tested severely by Stoner over the coming months.

Results

Leading positions: 1, C Stoner (Aus, Ducati) 44min 12.891sec; 2, V Rossi (It, Yamaha) 44:15.927; 3, J Hopkins (US, Suzuki) 44:19.554; 4, D Pedrosa (Sp, Honda) 44:26.981; 5, M Melandri (It, Honda) 44:30.167; 6, L Capirossi (It, Ducati) 44:39.147; 7, C Vermeulen (Aus, Suzuki) 44:39.482; 8, R de Puniet (Fr, Kawasaki) 44:39.916; 9, A Hofmann (Ger, Ducati) 44:40.999; 10, C Checa (Sp, Honda) 44:45.848; 11, C Edwards (US, Yamaha) 44:47.944; 12, N Hayden (US, Honda) 44:50.218; 13, S Guintoli (Fr, Yamaha) 45:03.596; 14, A Barros (Br, Ducati) 45:08.155; 15, K Roberts (US, KR212V) 45:10.627.

World Championship positions: Rider: 1, Stoner 86pts; 2, Rossi 71; 3, Pedrosa 49; 4, Melandri 41; 5, J Hopkins (US, Suzuki) 39; 6, T Elias (Sp, Honda) 35; 7, Edwards 31; 8, Capirossi 30; 8, Hayden 30; 8, Vermeulen 30. Constructor: 1, Ducati 86pts; 2, Yamaha 71; 3, Honda 69; 4, Suzuki 46; 5, Kawasaki 23; 6, KR212V 4.

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