Sponsors demand apology from Stoner
Added on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Stoner's absence has angered Ducati's main backer.
Ducati sponsors Marlboro have called on Casey Stoner to apologise for his three round absence from MotoGP racing due to illness.
Stoner has missed the last three rounds of the championship due to an illness that remains undetermined, much to the displeasure of the Ducati title sponsor, with Maurizio Arrivabene, deputy chairman for the tobacco giant has reported claimed that he is expecting an explanation from the 23-year-old.
“I hope that Stoner at Estoril will have the decency to apologise to the team,” Arrivabene told Italian television website Sportmediaset.
Stoner’s absence fuelled speculation of a rift between him and the Ducati team, with reports suggesting that Marlboro had offered to underwrite a £13m-a-year contract offer to Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo as a replacement for the Australian. Those reports were denied by team manager Livio Suppo.
Speaking ahead of his return at this weekend’s round in Estoril however, Stoner was keen to avoid controversy and concentrate fully on his return to competitive racing.
“I’m definitely looking forward to the race weekend,” said the 2007 champion. “Having three races off is the biggest period away from racing in my life. It was very difficult to accept the advice of the doctors to stop racing. In the past I have raced even when injured, like in the last few races of the 2008 season when my wrist was broken, but this time it was really not possible and of course I felt very sorry for the team.
“Now I’m looking forward to getting back together with the team and everyone and I hope I’ll be able to be more competitive than I was in the past, but we will have to wait and see. The doctors have put me on some salt tablets to increase my sodium levels but we will have to see if it helps. We will understand more during the weekend.
“Of course it’s going to be difficult: at first we won’t know if it will work because I’ve been off the bike so long that in any case my muscles will take some time to get race fit again. But, as I said, I’m looking forward to getting back and to starting work on the bike, looking towards the future.”
