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Engine difficulties left both World Champion Casey Stoner and Ducati teammate Marco Melandri disappointed in Le Mans
Marco Melandri had predicted a difficult race in Le Mans. Casey Stoner had been aiming for victory. Both Ducati Marlboro had a tough time in the Alice Grand Prix de France, where engine problems affected both riders and left Stoner outside the points for the first time in 22 races.
`I got a decent start to the race today but unfortunately I just didn´t have any feeling for the right hand side of the front tyre. I was losing a lot of grip at maximum lean and kept closing the front so I lost a lot of confidence. I couldn´t brake as late as I had been doing during practice so I had to ride around it and managed to get to the point where it was only when the tyre was right on the edge, in T4, that I was really losing time. I was there or thereabouts, still in with a shout of a podium position, and it started to rain so I thought that could give us a chance. Unfortunately that was when I started to have a problem with the engine, I couldn´t get any drive off the bottom end and couldn´t overtake anybody. Then a couple of laps later the engine problem effectively ended the race for us. This weekend has had a lot of positive aspects to it – we´ve got back up to speed again and found our old feeling with the bike so it´s just a case of everything coming together in a race. That's why I´m looking forward to the next one.´
`My race was doomed from the start because unfortunately the bike was cutting out on the sighting lap and I thought it was just a temporary thing. Then when I let the clutch out at the start it stalled completely and I lost some vital seconds. Once I got going I got my rhythm together and when I saw it was raining I decided to come in and hope that the gamble of an early change would pay off with some more rain. It´s a shame because things went well in the warm-up when the bike was more balanced and more predictable and I think I was capable of a good race. Now we have a couple of days to test and I'm sure we can make a real step forward before Mugello, a circuit I love.´
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