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An instant return to the stage after an absence of three races due to illness was the ideal rest break to those who doubted
Casey Stoner’s choice to take a leave of absence, the Ducati Marlboro competitor stated in his post-race media conference
at Estoril.
The 2007 MotoGP hero claimed a solid break to recover from a virus after affecting his fitness levels,
but raced in admirable fashon upon his return to place second at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal event this weekend.
Stoner appeared on the podium behind Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) and ahead of Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), this confirmed
any doubts over his form to race for the rest of the year.
“Not only has it been a long time off the podium,
it’s been a long time since I was competitive,” says Stoner. “It’s nice to know we can be competitive
until the end of the race now. For us to come back and do this in front of everyone after what everyone said, it’s a
big relief for me and it’s a nice feeling.”
Lorenzo took charge of colleague Valentino Rossi to take
the victory, narrowing the gap on "The Doctor" who placed a dissapointing fourth, he is 18 points ahead with only
three races left.
“It was a perfect weekend for us. I dominated every practice and was feeling great on the
bike,” said Lorenzo. “I didn’t expect this victory with such a gap, and I didn’t expect Rossi to finish
fourth.”
Pedrosa, who ended up in the top three adds, “I started very well, but I couldn’t follow
the rhythm for the first five laps. After those five laps I started to be quicker. Some tracks we are closer, and some tracks
we struggle more to be on the pace. Here, we were closer than normal but even in the race we are still far behind, so there
is still some hard work to do.”
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