Stoner: I was sulking!

MotoGP News
Date: 19/August/2011

Casey Stoner cut a forlorn figure for much of the Czech Republic MotoGP weekend, the world championship leader being seen with his head in his hands as he struggled to keep pace with team-mate Dani Pedrosa and title rival Jorge Lorenzo. 

That same Casey Stoner went on to win by 6.5-seconds and build his championship advantage to 32 points, the biggest it has been all season.

So how did he do it?

The answer was a late set-up breakthrough by his Repsol Honda team and then two very different mistakes by his nearest rivals.

"We were shooting in the dark going into the race," confirmed Stoner. "To be honest I was sulking a little bit this morning, because we couldn't understand why the bike wasn't giving us the feedback we needed.

"So we tried something different for the race and it was better right from the start. As soon as I got by Andrea [Dovizioso] and went after Dani and Jorge, I found it quite easy to do the pace.

"The team did a great job to give me a bit more edge grip, which we'd been struggling with all weekend. I was able to attack the corners a little bit harder. I had a fantastic bike for the race."

By the end of lap two, Stoner was directly behind race leaders Pedrosa and Lorenzo. But Lorenzo, Yamaha's reigning world champion, had made a surprise gamble in the form of the softer Bridgestone front tyre.

Just one other rider made the same decision - Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista, who crashed out - and Lorenzo was soon starting to suffer.

"I was a little surprised by Jorge's tyre choice, but I can understand," said Stoner. "The softer tyre gives you a little bit more confidence in the long corners. But being a hot as the race, it was a unique decision for sure."

Pedrosa and Stoner both overtook Lorenzo early on lap three - with Pedrosa, the dominant force all weekend, sliding out of the lead just moments later!

"As soon as I got past Jorge, unfortunately Dani crashed," confirmed Stoner.

"It went really quick. It looked like it just slammed him down, like my crash in the wet [on Saturday].  It was a little bit strange for sure.

"Without that it would have been a hard race, but that's the way things went.

"I would have liked to follow Dani for a few laps and see what lines he was running and what apexes he was using.

"But with the different set-up on our bikes I was going to have to run my own race anyway. Although it would have been interesting to see what pace I could hold relative to Dani."

Stoner then cruised to his sixth win from the eleven rounds, with Dovizioso second and Simoncelli third for an all-Honda podium. Lorenzo faded to fourth place.

"This win felt good for sure," smiled Stoner. "Like Laguna but in a different way. In Laguna we were not quite as far off - here we really weren't sure of what we had going into the race. To win that convincingly was something sweet for sure."

Stoner, the 2007 world champion, also admitted that the points gain was "hugely important", but rejected the notion that Brno was the decisive moment of the 2011 season.

"Everybody is always trying to pick a decisive point," replied Stoner. "That can be any part of the season - you don't know until the end of the year when you look back. For me the decisive point is when it's done."

Emerging victorious after struggling in practice for the last two events may be an ominous sign for the opposition, but Stoner wants a far less complicated weekend at Indianapolis later this month.

"In the last few races we've struggled to get on our feet quickly. It's taken too long to get our speed up," he warned. "We've got some work to do in the next two weeks to try and understand what kind of direction we need to go in with this bike.

"I'd like things to have been more comfortable than the last few weekends, but it's still worked out. Big thanks to my team and everyone for never giving up on me."

Stoner, in his first season with Honda, is aiming to hand the Japanese giant its first MotoGP title since Nicky Hayden in 2006.