Casey Stoner » General

MOTOGP: Round 6 – Catalunya, Spain – 14 June

admin — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 06:06:46 +0000

An extraordinary duel between team mates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo led to one of the most thrilling climaxes to a MotoGP event in years.
The top three riders all got off to good starts, running in qualifying order, Jorges Lorenzo initially opening out a gap over Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner for the first lap before they compacted together and were practically inseparable for the next two laps.
Behind them Randy de Puniet and Dani Pedrosa got blinding starts to ambush Andrea Dovizioso for 4th place with Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi also getting a flier from 11th to challenge the top six. Dovizioso soon reasserted himself, however, and took back 4th spot, while de Puniet fell backwards after the impressive start and ended up eight by the end.
At the front, the storm that threatened a three-bike pile up broke when Rossi finally squeezed past Lornzo for the lead three laps in. However if he had been expecting to power off into the distance he was mistaken, with not even a mistake by Lorenzo running wide and gifting Rossi an extra second being enough to prevent the local hero from getting right back into the fray.
Casey Stoner was valiantly staying with the lead duo; it was interesting to see how the Ducati’s familiar grunt down the long straights wasn’t in evidence, although on the other hand Stoner wasn’t dropped off in the slower, twistier sections as has traditionally been the case either. But he was clearly pushing the bike beyond its limits and finally the Yamaha duo left him for dead, and Stoner then had to battle Dovizioso to retain his podium place which he just about did – although he looked exhausted from the effort by the end of the 25 laps, explaining that an attack of ‘flu had worsened as the…

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MOTOGP: Round 5 – Mugello, Italy – May 31

admin — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:46:32 +0000

Casey Stoner emerged victorious from a wildly eventful and unpredictable Italian MotoGP, to end Valentino Rossi’s seven-year run of home wins here. But it was something of a lottery throughout, with at least half a dozen riders in contention for the win at various points of the race.
It threatened to be a disaster for polesitter Jorge Lorenzo, who was caught out by a slight shower and managed to slide off the wet track into the gravel trap on the sighting lap before the race even started. He had to return to the pits and change to the reserve bike: although it was quickly fitted with wet tyres, it still had the dry set-up for the anticipated mid-race changeover, and the problems with mixed tyres/set-up showed at the start when Lorenzo’s rear wheel just spun and spun while half the field streamed past him. Down to 8th before the first turn, the rest of the race seemed as though it was going to be damage limitation for him.
The best starts were by Casey Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso and Chris Vermeulen. Vermeulen is known as something of a wet specialist and proved it here, taking the lead from Stoner by the end of the first lap.
But this race was going to be all about the changing conditions: Vermeulen led while the track was still pretty damp, but as things started to dry off his lack of pace compared with the Ducati and Honda riders started to show and he dropped back at a fair rate of knots.
In these crossover conditions, it was actually Valentino Rossi (who had been circulating in fourth) who was coming on strong and finally broke into the lead; he brought Marco Melandri to the front with him, and as pit stops for a change to slicks loomed it…

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MOTOGP: Round 4 – Le Mans, France – 17 May

admin — Sun, 17 May 2009 06:20:11 +0000

Jorge Lorenzo arrived at Le Mans determined to make amends for crashing out in Jerez and telling all and sundry that he absolutely had to win at Le Mans if he was to keep his title hopes alive. So that’s exactly what he went and did.
It didn’t seem like it was going to be Lorenzo’s day at the start, when Dani Pedrosa got his trademark flying start to go into the first turn in the lead. Casey Stoner had a sluggish getaway from the line but made up for it with phenomenal late braking, and that meant Lorenzo was in third ahead of team mate Valentino Rossi.
But it was soon clear that Pedrosa and Stoner were not comfortable in the damp conditions after morning rain that had afflicted both 125cc and 250cc races earlier in the day. It was no longer raining, and th track had largely dried out, but there were still damp patches and it was too wet to start on slicks: Pedrosa’s never liked wet races, while Stoner’s set-up simply seemed to be off the mark – hardly surprising as none of the teams had been given much chance to test wet set-ups this weekend in the ever-changing conditions.
But Lorenzo had both the innate confidence and the best set-up out there today, and as Pedrosa and Stoner fell away it was Gorgeous George who took the lead – and proceeded to blast away from Rossi in second.
Now the big question was, when would the track dry out enough to justify putting for a change to click tyres? Rossi found his wet weather tyres (there are no intermediates in MotoGP anymore) were going off as early as lap 5, and so to the amazement of many he was the first to come into the pit lane, dismount and…

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MOTOGP: Round 3 – Jerez, Spain – 3 May

admin — Sun, 03 May 2009 07:16:21 +0000

Valentino Rossi had to battle hard, but ultimately pulled off a famous win at Jerez to see off the competition from the local heroes and give his championship prospects a huge boost at this early stage of the season.
Rossi got a reasonable start for once (meaning that he didn’t lose multiple positions and get swallowed up by the pack, as seems to happen to him quite often). He started in 4th and held position, while ahead of him his team mate Jorge Lorenzo starting from pole had a disappointing getaway, allowing Dani Pedrosa to get one of his trademark fliers and Casey Stoner to follow him through into second into the first turn.
In fact, Lorenzo – so peerless in qualifying yesterday – was simply lacking for much of the race itself. As Pedrosa and Stoner started to stretch out a big gap, Lorenzo was simply holding up Rossi from going after tham – and on lap 2, Rossi put that to rights and dispatched the Spaniard once and for all. Once past, Rossi rapidly pulled away from Lorenzo who seemed to be strangely off the pace.
Rossi still had a formidable job ahead of him, as Pedrosa and Stoner had pulled out a long gap already. It took Rossi another five laps to catch the Aussie, and he finally got past him for second place on lap 7 after which Stoner quickly dropped off the world champion’s pace.
Rossi now hunted down Pedrosa, shaving off a tenth here, two tenths there to gradually work his way right up tot he back of the Honda. Getting past was another matter, and it took Rossi a couple of goes before he finally made the pass stick at the back hairpin on lap 16. But once it was done, Pedrosa had nothing to come back…

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Stoner On Front Rrow For Herez, Hayden Sixteenth

admin — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:47:45 +0000

Casey Stoner recorded his best ever MotoGP qualifying performance at the Jerez circuit to secure a front row spot for what promises to be a scintillating Spanish Grand Prix tomorrow. The Ducati MotoGP rider clocked the third fastest time in this afternoon’s qualifying session behind local pair Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, with his team-mate Nicky Hayden set to start from sixteenth on the grid after being unsettled by a dramatic change in the track conditions this afternoon.
After a tentative first day yesterday, Hayden made improvements this morning and was tenth fastest in the final free practice session. However, with a 15ºC increase in track temperature and the arrival of high winds he was unable to maintain his progress in the afternoon, lapping almost half a second slower than he had in the morning. Stoner also struggled with the tricky conditions but increased his pace and confidence towards the end of the session, eventually closing to within half a second of Lorenzo’s pole effort.
Casey Stoner – 3rd (1:39.415)
“Our bike has never really worked well here in the past but we worked hard during the test and over the past two days to come up with a package that is at least competitive. This morning it felt really good and even though we weren’t top of the time sheets I felt confident. Unfortunately the wind tends to unsettle our bike and it was pretty hairy out there this afternoon – it certainly didn’t help me feel more confident with the bike after the front end issues we had yesterday! I set myself the target of a position on the second row so to get on the front row is an unexpected bonus and it will be really helpful for tomorrow. Until the last couple of years I’d always found it hard…

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Stoner starts Spanish sojourn on slower pace than at test

admin — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:43:22 +0000

Australian experiences lack of confidence with front end slippage.
The standout rider of the Official Test at Jerez, Casey Stoner encountered some early difficulties as the 2009 race weekend began at the track. The first practice session, in which the Australian finished third with a time of 1’40.268, was dedicated to finding a solution to a front end problem, although he remains self-assured of a better run on Saturday.
“We found that we were running too much pressure on the front tyre, and kept losing the front end,” analysed Stoner after his re-acquaintance with the Spanish track. “Unfortunately we had a problem with the engine on the second bike, and were unable to use it. We tried a few different things with the bike that we had, and I lost a little bit of confidence.
“We couldn’t understand if the back was pushing too much or not. We think that it’s just the front, so hopefully tomorrow will be a different situation.”
Stoner’s result in the Gran Premio bwin.com de España will come under close scrutiny following his disastrous 2008 race at the circuit, and also his not placing on the podium last time out in Japan. The former MotoGP World Champion however, has little respect for previous form as he aims to regain the title.
“We’re struggling a bit more than we were in the test here, although the bike does seem to be turning really well. We need a bit of time before race day, but we’re confident.”
Via MotoGP.com

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MOTOGP: Round 2 – Motegi, Japan – 26 April

admin — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:23:44 +0000

For the second race running, the weather played a hugely important role in the MotoGP race – even if the race itself enjoyed a completely dry track and brilliant sunshine.
That hadn’t been the case a few hours earlier when the riders endured a sodden final warm-up practice session; and things had been even worse on Saturday, resulting in qualifying being cancelled and the running order being set by the single dry session thus far, a distant memory back on Friday afternoon. Added to that, the rain had washed the track clean and reset it to factory conditions, so to speak – no one had a clue how it would handle.
That meant the drivers had very little set-up data for the race day itself, and there was a lot of guesswork going on. The form book was well and truly out of the window on this one.
It all seemed to be playing into Valentino Rossi’s hands. Not only did he have pole position, but with his level of experience his guess work should be better than most. And if it wasn’t – well, his biggest skill is being able to change his riding style to suit the conditions, and never would that be tested more than this race.
Sure enough, Rossi got a strong start and headed off to a commanding lead. Behind him it was Dani Pedrosa who got a flyer, starting from the fourth row of the grid in 4th but somehow blasting through the pack to instantly battle Jorge Lorenzo for second place. Over the opening laps, the two arch-rival Spaniards had a thrilling battle for the position, trading places until finally Lorenzo managed to secure the second spot and put Pedrosa behind him; and once he did, he was quickly able to pull out a lead on the…

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Saturday practice times – Japanese MotoGP. (Crash.Net via Yahoo! UK & Ireland Sport)

admin — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:00:11 +0000

Full Saturday free practice times from the Japanese Grand Prix at a wet Motegi, round two of the 2009 MotoGP World Championship. 1. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2min 1.841 sec 2. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 2min 1.893 sec 3. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 2min 2.497 sec 4. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha Team 2min 3.007 sec 5. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 2min …

Rossi leads in Japanese MotoGP practice (AFP via Yahoo! News)

admin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:48:47 +0000

Italy’s reigning world champion Valentino Rossi swept all before him in practice Friday for the Japanese Grand Prix, snapping archrival Casey Stoner’s early-season domination.

Stoner Confident Of Montegi Triumph (Sporting Life via Yahoo! UK & Ireland Sport)

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:09:12 +0000

MotoGP leader Casey Stoner hopes to repeat past successes at Motegi on Sunday.