Estoril MotoGP: Casey Stoner happy despite bumpy ride in Portugal

MotoGP world championship leader Casey Stoner showed the prospect of clinching his first premier class title in Estoril wasn’t affecting his performance after he dominated the opening day’s action in Portugal.

The Aussie admitted that Estoril’s bumpy track surface was more of a concern than whether he can wrap up the world title in Sunday’s 28-lap race.

Leading closest rival Valentino Rossi by a massive 85-points, Stoner could win the title this weekend if he scores 15-points more than the Italian.

But Stoner said he was tackling this weekend with the same approach as any other race.

“Today I was doing the same as every session. The team is doing a great job, I need some more traction to stop the rear pumping but we are staying with the same mentality,“ said Stoner, who said he could have gone faster had he not suffered with rear grip issues.

Despite his problems, the 21-year-old was fastest in both of today’s free practice sessions, clocking a best of 1.37.950 this afternoon.

Asked if he was having trouble with some of Estoril’s notoriously bumpy sections, he added: “The bumps are giving us some of our problems. We need to work with the engine management and the rear suspension to get it to travel over the bumps more smoothly.

“Today it was bucking and weaving, and this increases on the exit of the corners.

“This morning the bike was moving a lot but we improved it. In the afternoon I continued with the tyres from the morning session and did 26 laps, front and rear, and did the fast lap of a 1.37.9 on my last lap.

“I thought we could improve but we went in the wrong direction late in the session and had a lot more movement in the bike. We will try something different tomorrow.”