Estoril MotoGP: HRC modify clutch after Jerez controversy

Casey Stoner has confirmed that Honda has modified the clutch on its factory Honda RC212V machine after he was unable to re-join the recent Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez.

Stoner battled in vain to restart his V4 motor after Ducati rival Valentino Rossi wiped him out while the pair were attempting to chase down early leader Marco Simoncelli a rain-hit Jerez encounter.

The Aussie was critical at the lack of help he received from trackside marshals in the aftermath of the incident.

But he said Honda had modified the clutch to make it easier for him to bump start the bike if a similar situation to Jerez occurred in the future.

The 2007 world champion said: “It looks like we have fixed the problem for this weekend so we should have no dramas. It was disappointing because if I crashed and it was my fault then I perhaps don’t deserve to restart the bike but in that situation where the bike had no damage it was disappointing to lose so many points.”

“You can get it started but it is hard work and pushing it uphill with one person on a wet track you are not going to get he amount of grip you need.”

Stoner repeated his criticism of the marshals ahead of this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril and he added: “It wasn’t the best situation for me but for sure I wasn’t happy with the marshals, this was the bigger problem. To have one marshal helping me trying to start the bike was a big disappointment.”

“This is something that doesn’t go down so well with me. Hopefully I won’t end up in the gravel again and if I do hopefully it will be my own fault, not a crash that wasn’t mine. It wasn’t the way I wanted to start the championship and we were doing everything perfectly but it didn’t work out.”

“But when there is favouritism I don’t think it is correct and a lot of other riders I spoke to had the same problem with the marshals who weren’t willing to help. These bikes aren’t light and everybody in MotoGP wants to see more bikes finish than less. If it’s a small crash and you can go again there should be people there to help.”

Stoner also said he didn’t blame Rossi for the incident on lap eight of an enthralling Jerez clash that was eventually won by reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo.

The former Ducati star also said an exchange he had with Rossi in the Repsol Honda garage after the Jerez race was misinterpreted.

When Rossi went to apologise for his blunder in the braking zone for turn one, Stoner was heard on TV saying ‘Obviously your ambition outweighed your talent.’
But Stoner added: “I don’t blame anybody. Somebody asked me yesterday if I was going to return the favour to Valentino but Valentino did this by accident, it was not on purpose.”

“And a lot of people misinterpreted what I said. I said Valentino had run out of talent. He hasn’t run out he ran out, so this was in one point that he made a mistake and ran out of talent. All I need to do now is accumulate some points and get the championship on track and try and attack from there.”