Stoner ready to begin chase in Jerez
Added on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor
Stoner ready to begin chase in Jerez
Casey Stoner is heading to this weekend’s second round of the MotoGP championship believing that he can bounce back from the disappointment of Qatar three weeks ago.
Stoner crashed out from the opening race of the season in Doha from what seemed a certain winning position, ending his chances of claiming a fourth consecutive victory at Losail and handing the early initiative in the championship to Valentino Rossi.
That result put the Australian on the back foot from the opening round and following the cancellation of the Japanese Grand Prix last week, Stoner now heads to Jerez, a circuit that has not been kind to Stoner in the past, with just one podium in four visits to the Spanish circuit.
But the 2007 champion is still confident of a result this weekend, claiming that Ducati have taken big strides to address the issues that have plagued the Desmosedici at circuits such as Jerez.
“It is pretty unusual for a GP to be postponed but like last year in Qatar it is the kind of thing we can’t predict or control so we just have to look ahead to Jerez and the job that awaits us there”, he said.
“In the past it hasn’t been one of the more favourable circuits for us but we made some steps forward last year and finished on the podium. We start from zero this time around though and on Friday we’ll be working hard to find a set-up for the race. You need good handling for this track but also good stability and I think the direction we’ve taken with development of the GP10 should allow us to be competitive on Sunday.”
