It was a proud and an estatic Casey Stoner who took a fantastic win today at Phillip Island.
The Aussie rider who had decided to withdraw ffrom three races before the Brno round to diagnose and cure a mysterious fatigue problem that left the Ducati rider continually exhausted and frustrated, has now proved after his second place at the Estoril GP, that he’s fully fit and back stronger than before.
This was Stoner’s third home victory in a row, his third of the season and first win since the wet-dry Mugello round and heading into the Malaysian Gran Prix at Sepang this upcoming weekend, has now taken third place in the standings, six points ahead of Dani Pedrosa.
Casey Stoner:“I’d forgotten how good that winning feeling is and of all my victories this is perhaps the most special”“I can honestly say that from a physical perspective I can’t ever remember feeling this strong after a race, which shows that the work we have done and the time we took out has been spot on.
Physically I was the same from start to finish.
Every lap that I kept going past the point where I used to hit my wall made me smile.
I enjoyed each lap after that.
”“I got a good start and was able to put together the lap times to keep us at the front but quite honestly I felt I could have gone even faster if we’d have been able to find a little more rear traction over the course of the weekend.
Anyway, I can’t complain because the work the guys have done on the bike during the season has been phenomenal, from the swingarm to the new fairing… they just haven’t stopped trying to make it better even when I wasn’t around.
Now my aim is to help them as much as I can over the last two races and give Filippo as much useful data as I can so that he can work his magic and improve the bike even more for next year.