Casey Stoner

Even though Casey Stoner lost marks to Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo in the 2009 fight in Germany, the Aussie competitor seemed to be in improved physical shape by the completion of the Sachsenring race.

Stoner grabbed the lead for ten laps in the centre of the race, however tyre tissue seemed to be the reason for plummeting away in the ending laps, rather than his physicality. Stoner crossed the line only 10 seconds behind the victorious Rossi and was seven seconds short of the final stage position, which was locked by Dani Pedrosa.

Concluding the race, Stoner says, “At the beginning I thought I was going to be dropped pretty quickly because the bike didn’t feel too good in the first couple of laps. So I decided to hit the front as soon as I could, if nothing else to just try and hold everybody else up and try to stay in there with a shout. Then I started to lose the front end a few too many times so after the Laguna Seca qualifying crash and a few front end losses this weekend I thought it was better to play it safe and just bring it home.”

He adds, “Jorge and Valentino came past and then the front started to feel better, with a lighter fuel load so I started to push a bit harder, started to catch them and then I made a mistake. Then Dani had one unbelievable lap where he went half a second quicker than any of his other laps just about and then he came past me. I then started struggling on the left hand side of the tyre and lost the rear slightly at the bottom of the hill, but I was lucky enough to pull it up before I hit the gravel trap.”

Overall Stoner explains, “I was pretty happy with the race to be honest, considering the way things have been going lately. It’s the first time I feel like I have actually been involved in something for a while and if I hadn’t made that problem with the rear I might have been able to dig deep enough to catch Valentino and Jorge.”