Two mistakes cost me, says Stoner

Casey Stoner has pinpointed just two mistakes that cost him back-to-back MotoGP world championship titles. Stoner formally surrendered his title to Valentino Rossi yesterday following the Italian’s victory in the Japanese Grand Prix which gave him his sixth MotoGP crown.

He described Rossi’s season as almost flawless while he said he himself had paid dearly for successive crashes at Brno in the Czech Republic and in San Marino.

“He’s had an amazing season - he only made one mistake at Assen and the rest of the time he’s been on the podium, winning races,” Stoner said.

“He’s a worthy champion - eight world titles (two in smaller classes) show that - and I want to congratulate him for that.

“I’m just disappointed that we made two mistakes in the mid-point of the season that allowed him to open up such a big advantage.”

Stoner said he was now focused on a strong run at his home grand prix at Phillip Island this weekend.

“After the recent misfortune we’ve had it was important to come back here with a strong performance and some solid points.

“Now we can go to Australia with confidence and look to finish the season strongly.”

However it is uncertain how Stoner’s injured wrist will hold up for the remaining races in Australia, Malaysia and Valencia, Spain.

He revealed the old left wrist problem had hampered him in recent races and he had tried to avoid having it strapped as it hindered movement in his hand.

After a sizzling first half of the season, during which he collected four wins, two seconds and two thirds, Stoner’s year collapsed as he battled physical problems.

In Japan the factory Ducati rider said his lack of strength had caused him problems and he was unable to keep up with Rossi.

He held the lead from lap six to 14, but once Rossi had moved by he was powerless to prevent the Italian accelerating away to victory.

“At the beginning of the race everything felt good although I made a couple of mistakes on a cold tyre,” Stoner said.

“We were running quite a hard compound so we needed a few laps to get it warmed up. Once we did that the lap times were good and I felt happy with my pace.

“Unfortunately in the second half of the race I started to get tired in the changes of direction and I was having to close the gap coming out of the corners to get into the next one - simply because I didn’t have the strength to flick the bike over with the throttle open.

“The lap times dropped off and when Valentino came past I couldn’t keep up,” he said.

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