German MotoGP: Casey Stoner 'lucky' after big crash

Casey Stoner believes this morning’s crash-strewn opening practice session in Germany should have been red flagged on safety grounds.

The Australian said the cold track temperature and slow warm-up performance of Bridgestone’s tyres meant it wasn’t safe to ride after he suffered a big crash at Turn 11.

Stoner was only on his out lap from the pits when he was thrown over the handlebars of his Repsol Honda RC212V machine as he plunged down the steep hill at Turn 11. He’d initially lost the front-end and Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa crashed at the exact same spot just minutes later.

All three were fortunate to escape serious injury but the crashes saw a fresh barrage of criticism aimed at Bridgestone and Stoner said the session should have been stopped with track temperatures only reaching 21 degrees.

The 2007 world champion said: “I was disappointed there wasn’t a red flag.  One crash after another and there was no red flag in these conditions. What if all of us got injured and couldn’t race for the next couple of weeks? There would be 12 bikes on the grid.  I couldn’t believe they left the session going, there would be a shot on TV of a rider going down and one minute later another.”

Explaining the circumstances surrounding his own spill, Stoner said: “I hadn’t even changed direction and by the time the TV replay catches me the front was already gone. I had gone left and just gone over to the right and it was already gone, the front closed and I was trying to keep it up and it just wouldn’t come back and then the rear came around.

“I should have just let it go on the front. It might have been easier than going right up and over the bike. Considering how big the crash was I got away reasonably lucky. It is not such a nice feeling, I’m still bruised and hurt and it could have been a lot worse the way the crash was going.

“I was expecting the bike to land on top of me and all kinds of things.  I kind of got lucky today. But I wasn’t the only one with the problems and this was another Bridgestone incident. They are trying to bring softer rears to make it better but honestly it didn’t make it any better.

“This is the softest compound they have on the right and still we are not getting any temperature. In the front we are also struggling and a lot of riders went down today. I have lost the front more than once unfortunately and it would have been nice not to have that big crash this morning.”