Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner says he lacked the pace to beat Ben Spies – MotoGP news
Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner has admitted that he lacked the pace to beat Ben Spies for a win at the Iveco TT Assen Grand Prix.
Stoner said, “I tried everything possible to catch him, but he was able to retain the advantage and start to pull some more, so my congratulations to Ben, he rode a great race, but for us it was just important to get points today.”
During the race, the Aussie rider was not fully confident of his race position as he faced a crash in the qualifying practice session, shortly after both of his teammates Dovizioso and Aoyama experienced a fall.
Still he managed to finish the race on podium in second position and was happy to collect good points from the event. Now he is 28 points ahead of title rival Jorge Lorenzo, making it even tougher for the Spaniard to regain the lead.
The qualifying round was a pleasant session for the Honda factory rider. In order to improve the race settings, the team decided to slightly change the settings for the warm up session, but the time was not sufficient to try the setup. Continuing with it
in the race, Stoner was not sure how would the settings respond to race run, especially under slippery conditions.
He explained his physical condition that he had an aching back from the qualifier crash. Even in the middle of the race, the Aussie felt some problem with his shoulder while cornering in left turns.
Stoner was not oblivious to the fact that he was slower than the Yamaha factory rider, Ben Spies who clinched an effortless maiden victory in MotoGP class. Due to shortage of practice time, the factory Honda RCVs were slower than other rivals.
Despite not winning, Stoner leads the world championship and holds tough margin for Lorenzo to cover.
Despite the tough conditions, Stoner’s teammate Andrea Dovizioso scored a good third position just behind his Aussie teammate. Dovizioso collected 16 points to strengthen up his position at the points table. He maintains his lead from compatriot Valentino
Rossi with 18 points. The Italian was seven seconds behind his teammate Stoner and 27 seconds adrift from race winner, Ben Spies
The Japanese, Hiroshi Aoyama said, “First of all I'd like to thank the whole Repsol Honda Team and HRC, and I'm sorry for the accident yesterday! It was quite a tough weekend due to the conditions and situation, not ideal to go racing in but we couldn't
do anything about this.”
Aoyama is filling in for the injured Dani Pedrosa as the Spaniard has missed three events in a row. However, Pedrosa is expected to make a comeback at Mugello, Italy which is the eighth event of the MotoGP season.
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