Honda LCR rider Casey Stoner finished fourth in today’s Dutch TT in a dramatic photo-finish with fellow Honda rookie Dani Pedrosa. Stoner missed third place on the podium by just three hundredths of second (0.03), after a close last lap battle with Pedrosa.
After starting twelfth Stoner moved ahead of Pedrosa into fifth position on lap seven. By mid-race Pedrosa went past with Stoner pacing himself in the Spaniard’s slipstream, the pair running in fourth and fifth positions by lap 20. The final lap saw Stoner ahead of Pedrosa in turn one with the Spaniard squeezing back past Stoner just two corners from the finish. Race leader Colin Edwards crashed at the final chicane, handing Pedrosa third place by a narrow margin.
Stoner set the second fastest race lap, just 0.1s slower than winner Nicky Hayden. Stoner is sixth in the world championship with 78 points.

“While Casey was disappointed to miss the podium by just 0.03s I believe this was a very positive result -- Casey did a wonderful job and a had great fight with Dani. After set-up problems in qualifying the team found a good direction for the race so overall it was very good day”.

“I made a good start but got blocked by another rider and everyone went around the outside of me in turn one. But I had a good pace going and got into fifth and when Dani came past I was happy to sit in behind him for a few laps. Dani was a little slower than me but it was difficult to pass, I was losing some rear grip in the left-handers. Then I made a mistake on the final lap which allowed Dani to get ahead and while I'm not happy about that, the positive is that again today I had good race package was racing for the podium.”