German MotoGP: Casey Stoner: ‘I’m not ecstatic’

Casey Stoner dropped from first to third for the second MotoGP race in a row yesterday when he failed to fend off Spanish duo Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo in a captivating German MotoGP race.

The Australian led from laps five to 13 but eventually finished third, as he couldn’t defend second position from Lorenzo at the final corner.

The Repsol Honda rider, who saw his series lead cut to just 15-points starting the second half of the season in Laguna Seca this weekend, said: “We’ve been working all weekend with tyre temperatures because this track is quite bad for it and the fact that we overheated the tyre in Mugello we were afraid of it.

“It was our plan at the start of the race to take it quite easy. We knew the tyre temperature would be a little bit higher so when I didn’t get into the lead at the first corner I just tried to be smooth. I didn’t want to let anybody get away but we didn’t want to put too much pressure on the tyre at the beginning.

“After a few laps we decided to see what we could do at the front and see if we could get an advantage, but the effort we had to gain a tenth each lap was a bit too risky with that much fuel on board. Jorge and Dani came past and I didn’t want to let them get too far away because I knew I could go faster at the end.

“It got to one point of the race where I thought it was time to start pushing but Dani had already got into his stride. Dani got past Jorge and by the time I did, Dani had built up a bit of an advantage that I just couldn’t get back.

“Trying to catch Dani I made a few mistakes and Dani was riding good clean laps and hats off to him because he’s come back and won.

“That left it down to me and Jorge in the last two laps and I had no grip on the left side and the rear would come round. I was trying to go deep into the corners and square it off to get traction, but when Jorge came up the inside of me I picked the bike up but I still had nothing, so Jorge got the second place and we had to settle for third.

“I’m on the podium again and I’m still leading the championship going into the second half of the season, so I’ve got to be happy with it. When everything feels right you can go for the win but when things don’t feel right there is no point sending it down the road like I’ve done in the past years. I’m not ecstatic with my position but it could be a lot worse.

“There was a lot of overtaking and a lot of people at the front. I think it was a really good race but when a race goes that way you can’t be that unhappy about and it was my own fault why I wasn’t higher up the podium. But we will fight again next weekend.”

To hear more from Stoner and the key players at the Sachsenring, see the July 20 issue of Motorcycle News.