MotoGP news

Stoner commends smart tactics

Casey Stoner is relieved to have survived today's action-packed race and says that his team did everything right. Stoner's third place means that Australia had two men on the podium with Chris Vermeulen taking the chequered flag. However, Stoner will be particularly happy to have extended his championship lead over rival Valentino Rossi to 21 points after such an open race.

"I'm just surprised to stay up today," the 21-year-old said.

"The first part of the race there was some light rain and there were a lot of people going fast, but a couple of corners later they were on the ground so you weren't sure how hard to push. But we managed to get through that part and I got on the wet weather tyres and from there we just tried to take it easy, tried to play it smart and I felt like we did that today. We did everything right.

"I got past a lot at the beginning of the race and then I went back to eighth of ninth or something, I couldn't really see the pit board. But at the end of the race I'd managed to pull it back to get a podium place and I managed to bring it home so it was good," he added.

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