Indianapolis MotoGP Reaction: Tyre issue leaves Casey Stoner fourth

Reigning world champion Casey Stoner reckons a rear grip issue cost him the chance of a podium assault as he restored some of his battered confidence with a determined ride to fourth place in a weather-dominated Indianapolis GP.

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After a crash strewn spell, the Aussie came out on top of a tough battle with Andrea Dovizioso and Suzuki wild card Ben Spies to score his first points since the Laguna Seca race in late July.

The 22-year-old, who revealed he had grip issues with his rear Bridgestone rain tyre, said: “Everything felt reasonable at the beginning of the race and I lost a few positions, but I wasn’t worried because I knew we had a harder tyre and knew it took a few laps for it to warm-up.

“Once I got the tyre warmed up I started to do the same lap times as the front guys for I think one or two laps maximum. But then all of a sudden we just dropped. We just couldn’t do the same lap times. I was struggling for grip a lot in the rear.

“On the right hand side it was perfect and I was just struggling out of all the left turns to even enter in the corners at all with the back following me around, so I don’t’ know whether we got a small issue with set-up or something else.

“But I felt like we were a little bit better on Friday. But overall, I’m quite happy. We were struggling a bit with confidence in the wet after the crash on Friday and the way things have been going recently. And for us to bring it home today and in reasonable shape, it’s not too bad.

“We’re quite happy but things still didn’t go the way we wanted them to. I think that everybody was very, very lucky to stay up in the conditions. “I have a little bit more confidence back, mainly in the wet. In the dry this morning I got a bit more confidence back again.

“We still did Friday afternoon after the crash, but I was still a bit rough and sort of really didn’t want to crash again so I took it really easy. It was nice today to get back to a little bit of speed, but I still feel like we’ve got a fair way to go.”