A profile of Australian rider and two-time world champion Casey Stoner – MotoGP Special
Casey Stoner, one of a few Australian riders who left their mark in the MotoGP world was born in New South Wales, Australia on October 16, 1985.
The 27-year-old MotoGP rider started his international motorcycling career in 2002 and moved to the premier class MotoGP in 2006. It was a time when Valentino Rossi was at the apex of his career having won the MotoGP world champion title for four successive
years.
The switch from Honda to Ducati in 2007 proved quite fruitful for Stoner as he became the 2007 MotoGP World Champion, an outstanding victory keeping in mind that he had not won even a single Grand Prix in 2006 season. With the Championship title in 2007,
Stoner become the second youngest rider of all time to have won the championship. He was the runners up in 2008, 4th in both 2009 and 2010 seasons. Stoner won the gold medal again in 2011.
2012 season for the defending championship was the last of his motorcycling career because Stoner announced on May 17, 2012 that he was going to retire from the sport at the end of 2012 season.
In the 2012 Qatar Grand Prix, Stoner won the 3rd podium position. He raced the fastest lap of the Qatar Grand Prix finishing the 4th lap of the race in 1 minute and 55.541 seconds.
Stoner clinched victory in the second race of the event, Spanish Grand Prix held at the Circuito de Jerez. The victory at Jerez was followed by a victory at Estoril. Stoner had never won these tracks in his MotoGP career before. These victories put Stoner
in the championship lead with 66 points followed by Lorenzo with 65 points after three races in the 2012 Championship.
Stoner finished 3rd in the French Grand Prix. He handed over the championship lead to Lorenzo whose victory at the Bugatti Circuit brought him to a total of 90 points whereas Stoner was left behind with 82 points. It was before this race that Stoner had
announced his retirement in a press conference.
Then came the Catalan Grand Prix. Stoner finished 4th. This was Stoner’s first off podium finish in 14 months. He was the runners up in the British Grand Prix which left him 25 points short of the championship leader Lorenzo.
In the Dutch TT, Lorenzo was taken out by Alvaro Bautista while trying to make a turn. This made Lorenzo retire from the race. Stoner won this Grand Prix which made Stoner level on points with Lorenzo, each having 140 points.
In the German Grand Prix, Stoner had his share of bad luck when he had to retire from the race while trying to battle his teammate Pedrosa. Unfortunately, this retirement for Stoner came in the last lap of the race when he was only seconds away from the
finish line. Thus Lorenzo went into a 25 points lead which was never recovered by Stoner later on in the championship.
It was the 8th position for Stoner in Italian Grand Prix and a victory in the United States Grand Prix which was the fourth victory of the season for. During the qualifying session of the Indianapolis Grand Prix, Stoner crashed heavily which left him with
torn ligaments in his ankle. Still he was declared fit for the race and finished 4th, only 2.5 seconds behind the bronze medal winner Andrea Dovizioso.
Stoner had to miss the next three races of the season as he elected to have a surgery on his ankle. On his return to the championship in the Japanese Grand Prix, Stoner finished 5th. He ended the season with three consecutive podiums standing 3rd in the
Malaysian and Valencian Grand Prix and winning his home race at the Phillip Island for the sixth successive season.
The Valencian Grand Prix also marked the end of Stoner’s career. According to Stoner, lack of enjoyment competing in the MotoGP series was one of the causes of his retirement.
Now that Stoner has retired from MotoGP, it is expected according to most sports reporters like Parrish, Emmett and Farni that he will be racing V8 Supercars in future.
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