Casey Stoner’s second win of 2011 MotoGP season at the French Grand Prix will prove a great confidence boost for the Australian rider.
Stoner dominated the weekend’s proceedings, topping free practice, qualifying, and the race.
“The whole weekend has gone so well for us, arriving here from the Portugal test with the bike almost the same and we have improved small things here and there and only needed to adjust the set-up for this circuit. We went into the race confident,” he commented after the race.
Stoner was able to recover from a bad start where he overheated his clutch, to move into second after the first lap, and then get around his Repsol Honda team mate Dani Pedrosa for the lead.
Despite solid pressure from Pedrosa, Stoner was able to keep his cool, push hard and eventually create a gap. Unfortunately for Pedrosa he would later be involved in an incident with Marco Simoncelli which would result in a broken collarbone for the Spaniard.
“At the beginning of the race Dani was very fast and he was difficult to pass as he as being cautious,” Stoner reflected. “When I overtook him I thought I might be able to take some advantage, but he was able to match my times and follow me for some laps.
“I continued to push more than I prefer and eventually I put a gap between us. From this point the race came to me and I was able to focus on my consistency and win.”
Stoner heads into the next round at Catalunya in second place in the championship, trailing leader Jorge Lorenzo by twelve points.