Casey Stoner - Photo Credit: Repsol Honda
Repsol Honda's woes with the new Bridgestone front tyre continued at Silverstone as Casey Stoner was powerless to prevent Jorge Lorenzo from winning the British Grand Prix. The Australian led the first half of the race but once Lorenzo found himself in clear air, he wiped out Stoner's lead before sprinting away.
Stoner claimed he was struggling for grip from the tyre as early as the third lap and he had already realised the victory was going to be out of reach.
“It wasn’t a great race for us today, we saw the pace the Yamaha’s had in the early laps and it was really worrying to me. As early as lap three the bike wasn’t feeling good, especially on the left side, the tyre destroyed itself almost immediately. My plan was to try and get to the front and hold them up but Ben was proving difficult to pass, then he made a small mistake and I was able to slip through and I tried to hold it from there. We knew we didn’t have a better pace than the other riders and it wouldn’t be long until they were on us so I did what I could to stay in front. We were losing so much grip on the edge of the tyre that we had no mid-turn corner speed and we were having to make up for this with the entry and a clean exit, which made things difficult. Today we needed a little more grip and we would have been able to fight for the win but looking at the rear tyres at the end of the race, there was definitely something wrong with ours”.
Stoner finished just ahead of teammate Dani Pedrosa after the Spaniard fought his way through from seventh at the end of lap one. Pedrosa was pleased with the result given the current tyre issues but admits the championship is going to slip away if they don't solve them soon.
“I have mixed feelings after this race. I’m happy to be on the podium at this circuit for several reasons: it’s a track where I have always struggled a lot, we had a very tough weekend – it wasn’t easy for us to learn the circuit and set up the bike with these weather conditions, also I didn’t have one of my best race starts. I was seventh on the first lap, but I managed to remain calm and get faster lap after lap, maintaining my rhythm. I saw that Jorge was the man to follow, so I managed to pass Dovizioso, Bautista and Spies and caught Casey, who was second. But at this time, Jorge was gone and I tried twice to pass Casey, but he pulled a little again and in the last chicane, I tried to overtake him but I h ad a flash in my mind and I saw both Repsol Honda’s on the ground, so I settled for third place. It’s positive to both be on the podium if we consider that it’s the first race for the team with this new front tyre, but for the championship it is not good. We need to make a step forward to solve the problems we have with the chattering because right now, Jorge is too strong for the Honda’s”.
