Tough return for Stoner

MotoGP News
Date: 12/October/2012

Casey Stoner experienced a tough return to MotoGP action at Motegi on Friday, battling both physical and technical adversity on his way to setting the seventh fastest lap time.

The day began badly for the reigning double World Champion, side-lined for the past three events following ankle surgery, when he suffered a technical failure on his Honda just seconds after leaving the pits on Friday morning.

The Australian, who will retire at the end of the 2012 season, later suffered brake problems in the afternoon session, leaving him 0.890s behind pace setting team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Stoner said: "Today was a little disappointing, this morning we had our first bike fail on us so we lost valuable time, then in the second session we had a brake issue and spent a lot of time in the garage fixing that also.”

Stoner, who suffered ankle fractures and ligament damage after a crash Indianapolis in August, is also struggling physically.

“The hard braking areas are not the main problem with my ankle, it’s more the acceleration points,” he said. “There is so much wheelieing on this circuit that you have to keep your body at the front of the bike, to keep as much weight on the front as you can.

“But unfortunately my ankle doesn’t want to bend far enough to put my weight forward, so I’m having to pull myself forwards with my arms and they are working a lot harder than usual as a result. With all the acceleration points here, that is the biggest issue.

“We'll keep working tomorrow and see what we can do".

Pedrosa, who trails Jorge Lorenzo by 33 points in the Championship, outpaced the Yamaha rider by 0.102s on Friday.