Full Estoril post-race press conference

An immediate return to the podium after a three-race absence due to illness was the perfect riposte to those who doubted Casey Stoner’s decision to take time out, the Ducati Marlboro rider said in his post-race press conference at Estoril.

The 2007 MotoGP World Champion took an enforced break to recover from a virus which was affecting his fitness levels, but rode an admirable race upon his return to finish second at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal race at the weekend.

Stoner took his place on the podium behind Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) and in front of Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), and ensured that any lingering doubts over his ability to compete for the remainder of the season were dispelled.

“Not only has it been a long time off the podium, it’s been a long time since I was competitive,” said 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 closed in on Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi in the pursuit for this season’s title with victory, narrowing the gap on the Italian – who finished a distant fourth – to 18 points with three races remaining.

“It was a perfect weekend for us. I dominated every practice and was feeling great on the bike,” said the Spaniard. “I didn’t expect this victory with such a gap, and I didn’t expect Rossi to finish fourth.”

Pedrosa, who completed the top three in Portugal, added, “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.”