Casey Stoner doubts Honda weakness

Ducati’s Casey Stoner has questioned whether major complaints about the competitiveness of Honda’s new RC212V are fully justified.

Repsol Honda duo Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso have both launched scathing attacks on the lack of development by HRC in the early part of the 2009 campaign.

Pedrosa has been particularly vocal in his disappointment at Honda’s progress, with the Spaniard saying he’s sick and tired of failed promises and no significant improvements from new parts.

Despite his frustration with the new V4, Pedrosa is firmly in contention for the 2009 MotoGP world championship crown after he claimed three successive podium finishes in Japan, Spain and France.

Pedrosa is only nine-points adrift of series leader Jorge Lorenzo, but Stoner believes the Honda isn’t as bad as what people have been making out.

The 23-year-old Aussie said, who has been beaten in three out of the four races by Pedrosa, said: “When Dani wasn’t there in testing everybody was thinking that the Honda was a piece of crap and all the riders were complaining. Dani gets there and bang, he shuts them all up and all of a sudden all their results come up. They saw what the bike was capable of doing and everybody started to ride a lot better on the Honda. I think they had a good bike there but when they weren’t showing what it was capable of they all just kept complaining about it.”