Honda LCR rider Casey Stoner failed to finish today’s Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. The young Australian rider crashed out of eighth place, unhurt, on lap thirteen of the 24 lap race, after being third fastest in the morning warm-up session. After a fast start Stoner charged from 11th on the grid to be fifth on lap one, before passing Sete Gibernau to be fourth, just behind the leaders -- Loris Capirossi, Marco Melandri and Valentino Rossi. On lap ten Stoner lost ground when he ran wide and three laps later he crashed, complaining of front-end handling problems. The race, in sunny conditions, was won by Capirossi.

“In the morning warm-up Casey was third fastest behind the two Ducatis with a very good pace. In this session he tested with 0.5 mm more pre-load in the front and afterwards he decided to keep this setting for the race, but it seems with less fuel the bike was not comfortable. Everyone is sad, after the warm-up this should have been a good result.”

“For two laps from the start the bike felt OK, and I was up to fourth place after passing Gibernau. Unfortunately in the morning warm-up the team decided to put an extra turn of pre-load on the front and it was fine with full load of fuel. But as the fuel went down I had no feeling on the front, and the rear was lifting under brakes and I was running wide. I’m disappointed, because since free practice 3, we had the perfect set-up and we didn’t need to change anything. I wasn’t happy with the race, I should have been able to run low 1’47s, and I really have no explanation for the crash, I don’t know what I did wrong.”