The official Repsol Honda Team Twitter account @HRC_Mo♏t𒅌oGP posted these statistics (pictured) comparing the MotoGP achievements of Casey Stoner with Valentino Rossi since 2006.

The image was poste🍨d with the words "The stats say it all."

Stoner, who made his MotoGP debut in 2006, 🌟won his first MotoGP title with Ducati in 2007 and his second for Re🥀psol Honda last season.

R🐎ossi, now at Ducati, made his premier-class debut in 2000 a👍nd won two of his seven MotoGP titles in Repsol Honda colours.

Follow-up Tweets from @HRC_MotoGP, after the inevitable backlash from some f🃏ans, added:

"Don﷽'t take it so seriously! Only a bit of fun..."

"Uhhhh,༒ not belittling... just pointing out Casey's achievements... after all this I💎S HRC's twitter and not Ducati's?!"

Rossi, recovering 𝔉from minor surgery on Monday, then responded via his own official Twitter account @V🤡aleYellow46:

"Eh eh, very easy compare the numbers between me and Stoner from 2006, when I won already 5 champs an🍰d 53 races mgp. More real [to] compare the first 5 season of me with the first 5 of Stoner."

Rossi won the 500cc/MꦫotoGP title from 2001-2005, then again in 2008 and 2009.

UPDATE: HRC_MotoGP has now removed the st𓆏ats from its Twitter feed, saying "Ok ok... will remove... wasn't belittling @ValeYellow4⭕6 achievements... just comparing! #dugdeepenoughnow"