MotoGP: Casey Stoner upbeat after Catalunya result
After a disappointing start to the season, Casey Stoner will be pleased with the progress that his Ducati is making. He finished in third place behind Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa at the Catalunya Grand Prix which was a carbon copy of the podium from a week ago in Assen. Prior to this he had not even been on the podium this season let alone challenge for the race win.
At the start of the race Stoner was part of the leading pack which included Jorge Lorenzo on the Fiat Yamaha in first, Andrea Dovizioso on the Repsol Honda in second and Casey in third. After a few laps, the three of them started to pull away from the rest of the pack and soon they had enough clear air between themselves and Randy De Puniet who was leading the rest of the pack. Dani Pedrosa had shot to the front of the pack from his fourth place grid position at the start of the race only to outbreak himself at the very first corner and joining back in tenth position.
Stoner had a close check on the two leaders as they were all within a second of each other and trading fastest laps. But the Aussie was not able to keep his cool behind the relentless pace of Jorge Lorenzo and make a mistake in lap five when he ran his bike wide and had to lose two places and rejoin in fifth behind Randy De Puniet and Dani Pedrosa. Taking fourth back from Randy was not a problem for him but for the rest of the race, he was stuck behind the Honda of Pedrosa. After his error in the first corner, the Spaniard had fought his way through the field and due to Stoner’s error he was handed third.
Although he could not overtake him, Stoner’s bike was all over the rear wheel of Dani Pedrosa for the rest of the race. In lap fourteen, Andrea Dovizioso crashed out thus promoting Pedrosa and Stoner to second and third positions respectively. The two, however, could do nothing about the lead that Lorenzo had built up and as a result Stoner could do nothing about it as well. After the race Stoner felt that he had the pace to challenge for the lead if only he could have managed to find a way past the Aussie. The Honda seemed to have the pace when it came to getting out of corners whereas the Ducati would catch up on braking going into corners. Perhaps the problem facing the Ducati team now is just finding the right balance. This is where the Yamaha seemed to have an advantage over the rest of the field. The responsiveness of the bike is something that has been perfected ever since Valentino Rossi shifted camps from Honda to Yamaha.
Overall, the former World Champion felt happy about how the bike felt under him and on describing his time behind Dani, Stoner said “Dani got all his exits right, he was braking quite consistently but with the gaps he was pulling out of every corner into the next one it was just impossible to close. I was already having small problems with the front end which was wanting to close, so there was no sense in going in there and risking it by doing a daring manoeuvre on the brakes and bringing us both down. It was better for me to pick my point and try and get past, but he didn’t make any mistakes and I give him credit for that.”
With rumours of Valentino Rossi moving to Ducati next year, it seems like this will be the last season that Casey Stoner will have with the Italian outfit. It seems that he will end up racing for the Repsol Honda Team in place of Dani Pedrosa. Stoner’s title in the 2007 season came onboard the Ducati machine and seemed to have caught the whole world off-guard. However, as he moves to Honda, he will be hopeful that he will be able to add more to his tally of race wins and Championships.
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