Stoner hangs on for Jerez win

MotoGP News
Date: 30/April/2012

Sunday’s Spanish MotoGP marked a day of firsts for Casey Stoner, who claimed his first victory in the new 1000cc era and his first ever at Jerez, in over ten years of trying.

But it wasn’t all smiles for the reigning double world champion, as the arm pump problems that cost him victory in Qatar came back to haunt him.

After Losail the Repsol Honda rider announced he would seek the same ‘secret’ treatment for the forearm numbness that worked so perfectly in 2010.

However this time there was to be no quick fix, Stoner struggling for control in the closing stages of the Jerez race as he held off Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo by less than a second.

“It was nowhere near as bad as in Qatar, but it was the same problem again,” confirmed Stoner. “I was struggling to grip the bike on the exit of corners. I had no power to change direction.

“It was tricky to deal with and I was making some silly mistakes. In America they call it ‘whiskey throttle’ when you’re just holding on for dear life really. Just getting on the brakes into corners I’d run wide. I just wasn’t in perfect control of the throttle.

“I need to improve that a lot. It won’t necessarily change our speed, but it will get us a little more control.

“Jorge and I both made a few mistakes during the race so the gap between us was about even, then towards the end I made an even bigger mistake and from that Jorge was on my rear wheel to the end. I was just hanging on.”

Unfortunately for Stoner he now has just five days before being back on track for free practice at Estoril in Portugal.

“We’re going to work hard to try and improve the arm situation between now and then,” he said. “Portugal will be hard again with a lot of acceleration points and changes of direction.”

After two rounds, Lorenzo leads the championship by four points from Stoner.