Stoner celebrates landmark success
Added on Monday, September 19th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor
Stoner celebrates landmark success
Casey Stoner hailed his eighth victory of the season as “something special” at Aragon yesterday, with the Aussie opening up a 44 point lead in the rider’s standings.
Stoner recorded yet another comprehensive victory at the Motorland circuit in Aragon, beating teammate Dani Pedrosa by 8.162 seconds and title rival Jorge Lorenzo by an impressive 14.209 seconds, to take another step towards to a second World Championship.
The success was a landmark for Honda, being the team’s 100th, and Stoner paid tribute to the team for helping him to secure the win in difficult conditions in North West Spain.
“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. This was on our minds as well as 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.”
