DESCRIBING his Ducati as "perfect", world MotoGP champion Casey Stoner has declared his title bid back on track after victory in the British Grand Prix. Stoner took his second victory of the season and the 40th podium of his career with a dominant display at Donington Park at the weekend.
The win boosted him to third in the championship, behind leader Valentino Rossi and Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, and helped him win the Performer of the Week award, presented by Colonial First State.
Stoner, who started on pole for only the second time this season, crossed the line 5.789 seconds ahead of Rossi. Pedrosa climbed from ninth on the grid to finish third on his Honda.
Stoner never looked in danger of surrendering his advantage and claimed his first victory since the season-opener in Qatar.
asey Stoner today picked another dominant victory in front of Chris Vermeulen, with John Hopkins providing double Suzuki podium. So, logical question would be - where is Valentino Rossi? Well, home Grand Prix ended for Valentino Rossi in lap 5, as his new, pneumatic-valve driven Yamaha stopped. Fantastic victory of Casey Stoner and Rossi failure have almost certainly decided outcome of this year's championship - with chances of Rossi being only theoretical.
The Australian predicted he would now be in a position to vie with Rossi and Pedrosa for the crown.
"This has been a great weekend for us, and it's brilliant to know that we're in a position to fight that little bit harder," Stoner said. "The last three races have gone quite well for us in general but we've taken a big step forward with the new electronic system, which worked so well at the Catalunya test and then here.
Once again Randy de Puniet crashed in first lap, but unfortunantelly taking Pedrosa and Hayden off the track with him. Hayden managed to re-join the race and finish it in 13th lap, while his team-mate Pedrosa had to stay out of the race. We all know about de Puniet's crashing habits, but he needs to learn how to do that without involving other riders.Chris Vermeulen looked like only rider able to stay with Stoner, but as race progressed, Stoner extended gap and finished almost 5 seconds in front of Vermeulen. Fact that Vermeulen finished more than 11 seconds in front of team-mate Hopkins shows how good Vermeule was today.
