French MotoGP: Engine failure dents Casey Stoner’s title defence

Casey Stoner’s hopes of defending his MotoGP world crown suffered another crushing blow today in France as he failed to score points for the first time in his factory Ducati career.

An engine failure with his GP8 as he approached the first corner on lap 21 saw the Aussie drop out of third that he was trying to protect from a hard-charging Jorge Lorenzo.

Stoner managed to coast back to the pits and he completed the race on his spare bike fitted with rain tyres to preserve his 100 per cent finishing record with Ducati, but 16th saw him slip a massive 41-points adrift of series leader and Le Mans winner Valentino Rossi.

Stoner, who led for the opening seven laps before he succumbed to Fiat Yamaha rider Rossi, said: “I got a decent start to the race  but unfortunately I just didn’t have any feeling for the right hand side of the front tyre. I was losing a lot of grip at maximum lean and kept closing the front so I lost a lot of confidence.

“I couldn’t brake as late as I had been doing during practice so I had to ride around it and managed to get to the point where it was only when the tyre was right on the edge, in T4, that I was really losing time.

“I was there or thereabouts, still in with a shout of a podium position, and it started to rain so I thought that could give us a chance. Unfortunately that was when I started to have a problem with the engine, I couldn’t get any drive off the bottom end and couldn’t overtake anybody.

“Then a couple of laps later the engine problem effectively ended the race for us. This weekend has had a lot of positive aspects to it – we’ve got back up to speed again and found our old feeling with the bike so it’s just a case of everything coming together in a race. That’s why I’m looking forward to the next one.”

Stoner has now only claimed two podiums in the first five races and he added: “Things haven’t gone our way so far this season. If those things like the camera hanging off in Estoril or me running off in Jerez hadn’t happened, nothing would look as bad as it does. We were fighting for a podium today. I believe if everything had gone a little bit better, we would’ve been on the podium.”