Australian rider Casey Stoner and the LCR Honda Team made an impressive MotoGP debut with a brilliant performance to finish sixth in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. Stoner, the youngest rider in the 27 lap race, made a lightning-fast start from the third row of the grid and was sixth on lap one. He then moved to fourth just behind factory Honda rider Nicky Hayden before settling in sixth position mid-race.
Stoner then held-off the persistent challenge of Japan's Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki) over the final laps to secure sixth, just 21 seconds behind race winner Loris Capirossi. A MotoGP rookie, Stoner came into this race after a five week break from riding while recuperating from a shoulder operation and rode superbly against his more experienced factory rivals. The Spanish GP was a huge learning curve for both Stoner and the LCR squad who will stay in Jerez to test their Honda RC211V tomorrow, in preparation for the next race, the Qatar GP.

"This is a great day for the LCR team and Casey, sixth place is more than we could have expected after missing so much testing and considering our late entry to the championship. I want to thank Casey for his great race and to everyone in the team, it has been a very busy time getting ready for the first GP of the season."

"I honestly didn't expect this after missing nine days of testing so I'm very happy with this result and the support from the LCR team, they have done a great job this weekend. I made a great start and with the mix up at turn one with Rossi crashing I was able get away with the leading group. We had changed the set-up with different front forks after the problems in qualifying and the bike was much better in the race, but still not perfect, I was running wide in some corners. I want to congratulate Dani Pedrosa for his great ride into second place, he did a great job today. Physically, my shoulder was no problem although my first MotoGP race was hard work."