Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner takes seventh podium of 2011 MotoGP season at Sachsenring
Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner scored the seventh podium of the 2011 MotoGP season and a double for his Repsol Honda team along Dani Pedrosa’s first place at the German Grand Prix.
The Aussie was third on the podium of the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland that took place at Sachsenring, Germany.
Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner said, “We knew today would be a hard race, we found a good set up yesterday in qualifying but we had an issue with the rear tyre and the temperatures getting too high, with it spinning too much.”
In the last race at Mugello, Stoner was able to create a gap between him and the second place rider in the race. He rode strongly and efficiently to open the gap, but in the later laps his tyres which were quickly heated, wore out faster than expected. The
tyre wear cost him to lose his place to Jorge Lorenzo and even the second place from his teammate Andrea Dovizioso to settle at third.
The Aussie rider at the Repsol team, Stoner said, “We took it easy in the early part of the race and thought we'd try to preserve the tyre and warm it up slower than we did in Mugello. After a few laps I decided to make a move to the front to see what we
could do and we were able to pull a small advantage.”
Stoner’s efforts in the race were not paying off to the fullest towards the end. He was trying to speed up but the worn out tyres hampered his performance. Therefore, he decided to hold his ground in the race and not try anything extraordinary.
Meanwhile, Stoner’s teammate Dani Pedrosa charged his Honda RC212V to lead the final moments of the race. Dani was too strong and fast and he overtook Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo in a short stint.
In the pursuit, Stoner also passed Jorge Lorenzo and maintained his position to the very last corner of the race, while keeping the race line as clean as possible. However, Lorenzo made a risky pass over Stoner in last lap and shot to second position for
the German Grand Prix, leaving the Aussie in third position.
Tags: