Queenslander Mick Doohan was legendary in his Repsol Honda years as 500GP World Champion.

Australia’s five-time 500cc Grand Prix World Champion Mick Doohan has offered his opinion on last weekend’s crash between Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi in an interview on ONE HD’s RPM television program.

Doohan was a guest via Skype speaking to host Greg Rust alongside Daryl Beattie and Craig Baird, and he agreed that maybe on that particular occasion Rossi’s ambition did outweigh his talent, without placing the incident’s blame completely on Rossi.

“I guess you could argue that on that particular time it did,” Doohan commented when questioned about countryman Stoner’s post-race comments to Rossi that his ambition outweighed his talent as Rossi appologised in the Repsol Honda garage.

“You know, he was trying to get in there and was a little bit too hot for whatever reason and it didn’t work. So, you know, you would think that the ambition was a little bit ambitious. But that’s generally when you crash, you’ve tried something that didn’t work.”

Doohan also agreed with Stoner that Rossi could have removed his helmet before heading to Honda to make the apology.

“It probably would have been a little bit nicer on Valentino’s behalf had he taken off the helmet, regardless whether the press were there or not, and just came in making it look a little more sincere rather than saying ‘sorry for taking you out mate, but geez it gave me a bit of a leg up when I needed’,” the Queenslander added.

Doohan, while admitting he hasn’t seen the entire race, didn’t think nine-time world champion Rossi was at fault for attempting his ambitious passing manouver in tricky conditions at Jerez.

“I don’t think he did anything wrong other than crash,” Doohan added. “It’s not like he tapped his rear tye or something – to me that would be doing something wrong if he ran into the back of him. He was well ahead of him, just Casey had nowhere to go [when Rossi crashed]. It’s just an unfortunate racing incident.”

Doohan also spoke about the marshals seemingly assisting Rossi more than Stoner in the aftermath of the crash, stating that perhaps they shouldn’t be allowed to assist the riders in remounting at all following an accident.

“I guess one thing that should come out of this is that maybe the marshals aren’t allowed to touch anybody,” he said. “If you’re by yourself in an incident like that then it’s great if they give you a hand, but it’s probably not such a great thing when one’s helped but not the other.”

Doohan, who enjoyed a dominant career from 1994-1998 as HRC’s main man in the two-stroke GP era, now believes Stoner will be even more determined to prove his might in proceeding rounds.

“It was just one of those things, I think in the heat of the moment everyone’s upset, especially Casey because he got knocked off and he didn’t get going again – his race was taken away from him,” he said.

“After winning the first round, being on pole position and then this happens, it’s not a wonder he’s upset. I’m sure that he’ll make amends for it and it gives everyone something to talk about.

“I’m sure Casey would prefer to be talking about winning last weekend’s race, but it’s just the way that the cookie crumbles sometimes.”

To watch the episode of RPM with Doohan on it, click here. RPM made its return to television on ONE HD three weeks ago and is aired every Tuesday at 9:30pm.

Back in 1996 at Eastern Creek, Doohan was famously knocked off his NSR500 by Spanish teammate Alex Criville, resulting in a heated confrontation once the pair met in the pits afterwards. Check it out here: