MotoGP news

Stoner enjoys front row upon return

Casey Stoner announced his return to the competitive end of the MotoGP grid today with a typically exhilarating qualifying performance at Estoril, where he put in a strong challenge for pole position before settling for a front row start in third place. The Australian was in good physical shape at the end of the hour-long session and the arm-pump problems that he suffered yesterday were not as severe.

Stoner moved to the top of the time sheets early in the session, lapping faster than the rest of the field on three consecutive laps. Another brief spell in provisional pole at the midway stage was only bettered by Jorge Lorenzo, who went on to consolidate pole position whilst Valentino Rossi edged out Stoner for second place in the final stages by a mere 0.054 seconds.

Commenting on qualifying Stoner said: "Yesterday it looked as though a front row start was a long shot but at the end of the qualifying session today I was actually disappointed not to be on pole! This morning we came out and everything felt good and this afternoon was the same.

"My body's sore because I haven't been on the bike for so long but so far I haven't struggled with any of the symptoms that had bothered me before the break. We were competitive on race tyres but when we put the soft tyres on to make them work we couldn't get any grip. We weren't generating any heat into the right hand side of the tyre so I don't know if it was a faulty batch or we were just unlucky. The second tyre had more grip but I didn't use it to its full potential. Anyway, a front row start is nice for us and I want to thank my whole team and everybody else who has stuck by me lately. We've had a lot of critics while I've been away and I've had to laugh at some of the things I've read.

"Tomorrow is the race, which is the big one, but it's nice to come back in this way and I think we've already shown that it was the right decision to take the time off."

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