 |  Rossi is still the fastest, most talented rider out there |
Valentino Rossi's bid to win his sixth-straight MotoGP title is far from over.
He may be 51 points behind championship leader Nicky Hayden with only six races left, yet I know no one who will be writing the brilliant Italian off.
There is no doubting the fact that he is up against it and if I was a betting man I'd say he only has an even chance of winning the title.
But he is still the fastest, most talented rider out there and I don't think anyone would disagree with that.
His biggest problem is going to be whether Hayden, Dani Pedrosa or Marco Melandri will keep up their consistency until the end of the season by regularly staying in the points.
Hayden is backed the might of Honda who will ensure all their riders, bar Pedrosa, will do all they can to help his progress.
It was an immense result for the American to win in Laguna Seca as lots of people said he couldn't lead races after his debacle at Assen, but he made them swallow their words.
This season he has been learning and learning and he is now in a strong enough position within the team to dictate what he wants to do and when.
I can't think of a precedent of a rider overhauling such a commanding lead as Hayden holds in MotoGP, although when the BBC covered Superbikes, Colin Edwards came back three-quarters of the way through the season to win the title by two points.
 Honda will help Nicky Hayden as much as possible to win the title |
Troy Bayliss, who was leading comfortably, just crumbled under the pressure after he made one mistake.
And that's all it could take for Rossi to be right back in it, one tumble or breakdown and the heat is back on.
Strong parallels can be drawn between Rossi's scenario and the comeback being forged by a certain Michael Schumacher in Formula One this season.
The German has been steadily eating away at Fernando Alonso's lead and the aura that the seven-times F1 champ has got helps him exert huge pressure on the Renault driver.
Rossi carries the same power and he can really use it to his advantage.
He said after the last race in America that he would just have fun for the remaining races and I think that will help him.
Bad luck has dogged him year and there is nothing anyone could have done to avoid that, so he should just enjoy the remaining races.
I don't think anyone will carry the can for the problems Yamaha have had with their bikes this year, although Michelin will be probably be sweating a little bit about the performance of their tyres.
Some riders would give up the ghost and say 'what's the point of pushing it?'.
But Rossi is a different animal and Yamaha's chief mechanic, Jeremy Burgess, will be pushing as hard as he can as the team is so competitive.
Just a quick word on Great Britain rider James Ellison, he is close to the end at Yamaha unless his new chassis comes good.
He has nowhere to hide now so I will be watching his race with interest.
The track at Brno is quite wide and does allow for overtaking so we are all set for an intriguing battle.
Predictions: 1. Rossi 2. Melandri 3. Hayden
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