What can you say about Casey Stoner this season and how he’s gelled with Honda’s RC212V? Only one word.
Awesome.
And Ducatisti, especially Italians should stop invoking his return to Ducati.
It ain’t gonna happen.
The 2011 championship seems already in his pocket (racing is never a sure thing) and from this point on it’s only his to lose.
The Australian dominated from start to finish at Aragon, with no one able to stay with his blistering pace and his victory today crowned the 100th victory for the Respol Honda Team since the partnership was formed in 1995 where Mick Doohan won the very first race for the factory HRC team in Eastern Creek.
“Before the race everyone was a little cautious with the wind picking up after the morning warm up and conditions being a lot different to those we have seen all weekend,” said Stoner.
“This was on our minds, also warming the hard tyres to make sure everything was good for the beginning of the race.
Our start was pretty average, I pulled to the left a little on the start and managed to avoid hitting Dani, but Ben came around the outside and I ended up third or fourth going into turn one but from there we were able to settle down and feel comfortable with the bike.
I wanted to get to the front as soon as possible as the bike has been working perfect all weekend and it was our race to lose, so I tried to get in front and pull a gap.
I passed Dani as soon as I could and tried to pull that gap, Dani kept with me for the first few laps, but slowly I was able to put in a gap and manage the race.
I think everyone was struggling with tyres to some degree, but the bike was fantastic and I don’t mind when the bike slides around a little! A big, big thank you to the whole team and to take this hundredth win for Repsol Honda is something special.
” Despite his great ride to 2nd place, Dani Pedrosa was another rider who suffered tire issues.
Bridgestone will have to do a little investigative work to find out why their tires which usually last the race distance, at Aragon became an problem for more than one rider.
“We already saw in practice that Casey was very fast here and it was also like this in the race.
I was losing some tenths in the first sector and I was unable to reduce the gap in the other parts of the lap.
The second half of the race I was sliding the whole time and I had some fun, but it was a shame not to be closer to Casey, I had many problems with the rear tyre for the whole race.
My priority was to control the gap to Spies and Jorge in the final laps and get another podium.
We’ve been second in the last three races, which is not so bad, but we want to keep improving in the coming races.
”Andrea Dovizioso DNF’d on the first lap due to cold tires (even the ultra cautious Italian got caught out) and we believe that if he hadn’t crashed out he would have given Jorge Lorenzo a fight for the podium as his race pace during the weekend was much better than the Spaniard’s“I made a small but fast slide at the first right turn, all the weight went on the front, I wasn’t able to control the bike and I immediately lost it as the front tyre was still not at temperature.
It’s so disappointing to see your race over on turn two of the first lap after all the hard work done during the weekend.
It’s a pity because we had the pace to fight for the podium and the team did a good job.
Leaving Aragón without scoring any points is also so bad for the Championship.
We are still third, with a fifteen point advantage over Dani, but now we need to return on the podium and have good results.
Last year we had a strong end of the season, especially in Japan and Malaysia, so I look forward to the next GPs.
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