Assen MotoGP: Casey Stoner bounces back to third

Casey Stoner will start his bid to win four successive MotoGP races for the first time in his career from the front row after the Australian was fortunate to walk away unscathed from a heavy crash this morning in Assen.

Stoner lost control of his factory Honda RC212V machin on a damp patch on the Circuit van Drenthe after heavy early rain had soaked the track.

Stoner was able to walk away from the incident but he admitted his confidence was knocked before he recovered to claim third place on the grid for tomorrow’s 26-lap race.

The 25-year-old will start behind Marco Simoncelli and Ben Spies and he said: “I hit a little wet patch that I didn’t see the lap before and it hurt pretty bad and it knocked my confidence a little bit. I’m really annoyed because it was a good crash but there’s no footage of it, like Ben’s at Silverstone.

“The crash hurt and I think it is going to hurt even more tomorrow. During the session I put it to the back of my mind and kept riding, but then afterwards when my body cooled down and I got up to move it hurt in my back and shoulder, worse than I thought.

“My knee is pretty bad and I’ve torn a small muscle in my groin, just small things that annoy me to walk around. On the bike it didn’t seem too bad. I landed on my knees and then onto my hands and I think I’ve done something to my kneecap.”

Stoner also struggled to generate heat in the left side of his rear Bridgestone tyre to challenge Simoncelli’s impressive speed and he added: “I couldn’t really get the feeling on the left side of the tyre and even after a several laps I just can’t seem to get the heat into it.

“We will work on that tonight, but Ben and Marco have been consistently a lot faster in race pace and qualifying. I wasn’t willing to push on the left corners and I really want to fix this for the race.  It’s good to be on the front row and I think I’m in with a chance to win tomorrow.”

Stoner’s crash triggered a crazy three minutes for the Repsol Honda squad in this morning’s extended 90-minute session.

Stoner’s bike had barely been moved to safety when Italian Andrea Dovizioso suffered a vicious high-side hitting the same damp patch at Turn 9. And then Hiroshi Aoyama, who is standing in for the injured Dani Pedrosa, then fell heavily at Turn 13.