Riding the LCR Honda, 20 year-old Australian rookie Casey Stoner staged a breathtaking late race charge to finish fourth in the French Grand Prix. Starting eleventh on the grid, Stoner survived the strong challenge of factory Honda rider Nicky Hayden to secure his fourth top five finish of the season.
Stoner swept past Hayden for fourth place with seven laps remaining in the 28 lap race, and then resisted every move by the hard-riding American over the final stages. In a tight finish, Stoner was just 0.21s ahead at the end.
With a series of fast laps that saw him close dramatically on the lead group, Stoner set his fastest time of the race on lap 22. After struggling for bike feel on full tanks in the early stages, Stoner was eighth at the end lap one before making his mid-race surge that positioned him for a brilliant overtaking move on Hayden.
After five races Stoner is fifth in the world championship with 65 points, just six behind Spanish rookie
Dani Pedrosa.

“That was a heart-stopping race. Especially over the final laps when Casey and Nicky Hayden were racing so close but Casey did a wonderful job to reward the team today. We were in trouble with set-up because of the weather and Casey did not have a perfect bike but over the final laps he was running the same times as the leaders”.

“Fourth place feels pretty damn good and again I’ve answered the people who said I couldn’t race on worn tyres. The battle with Nicky was great, it was a clean fight, but unfortunately I nearly took him out at the start of race -- I’m sorry for that, I just missed my braking a little. The mixed weather cost us set-up time and at the start my bike felt terrible, there was no way I could stay with the front guys -- I couldn’t brake late enough on full tanks. By mid-race the bike started to feel more comfortable so I pushed and started to catch the leaders.”