The heart of the European MotoGP season begins this weekend with the Catalunya Grand Prix north of Barcelona, a race with a rich history and massive crowds that marks the first of six races in eight weeks.

For Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner, the rapid succession of races will provide plenty of oppurtunities to close in on the championship leader.

Coming off a strong win at Le Mans, Stoner feels confident he can continue to make up points on current championship leader, Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo.

“After such a great weekend in Le Mans I’m really looking forward to going to Barcelona,” commented Stoner.
“It’s one of the first Grand Prix tracks I rode on and I’ve always enjoyed it. It’s a very flowing track and the Spanish crowd are amazing.”

Stoner will look to use his team’s past knowledge of the track to quickly find a good setup, and has urged the importance of continuing to close the championship gap.

“In the past Dani has proven our bike performs well there, so hopefully we can get there and find a reasonably good set up, fast and be competitive because we really need to start taking back some more points,” Stoner stated.

Stoner currently trails Lorenzo by twelve points coming into Catalunya.