Sachsenring MotoGP: Casey Stoner maintains stunning recovery

Reigning MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner continued his brilliant 2008 recovery with a third straight victory in a rain-soaked German GP.

Just a month after virtually being written off as a title no-hoper, Stoner is now only 20-points adrift of new series leader Valentino Rossi.

Once Dani Pedrosa had crashed out of the lead on lap six while he held a massive seven second lead over Stoner, the 22-year-old cruised to his fourth win of the season.

It took his win tally to 50 per cent with Ducati having claimed 14 victories in 28 appearances and he had the distinction of becoming the 100th GP winner for Australia.

The factory Ducati rider said: “I saw Dani ride off into the distance and I thought ‘fair play’ – there was no way I could keep that pace in those conditions at that time. We definitely needed a bit more time to get the tyres up to temperature and Dani just kept edging away, but then after a few laps I was coming down the main straight and I could see his bike bouncing around in the gravel at turn one. It’s a shame for him but even though he crashed he was still very impressive today. From then on it was a case of keeping my concentration but that wasn’t easy because I’ve been a little sick all weekend and I wasn’t feeling at all good during the race. Also, we went with quite a hard rear tyre compound and I had quite a few small moments that made me nervous but kept me on my guard. I kept pushing where I could and managed to keep opening out the advantage with every lap, then kept it upright to the end. It’s nice to close the championship down a little bit more and once again I owe a huge ‘thank you’ to the team, who have adapted the bike to virtually any condition here. This win is dedicated to them.”