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Retirement obviously hasn't slowed Casey Stoner. After announcing last night that he would be retiring from MotoGP at the end of the 2012 season (and no, that does not mean he will be going to World Superbikes instead), the Australian climbed aboard his Repsol Honda RC213V, banged out the fastest time, a second quicker than anyone else at the time, on just his 3rd lap out of the pits, and went on to top the timesheets in both FP1 and FP2. He had felt a little strange when he rode out of the garage in the morning, he told reporters, realizing that this was the last time he would ever ride these tracks, but thanks to the miracle of compartmentalization – a mental trick that all top sportspeople can perform, tucking away anything not related to the task at hand into a corner of their minds, and focusing their full attention on performing to the peak of their ability – he got on with the business of going very, very fast indeed.
Both factory Hondas are fast. Stoner and teammate Dani Pedrosa took a one-two in both sessions of practice, but Stoner is still a step above the rest, getting close to the lap record Pedrosa set during last year's race, despite the track being cooler than in 2011. Stoner spent his time trying to generate some chatter – more difficult in cooler temperatures and on the Le Mans circuit's less grippy asphalt – to at least try to gather some data after the Estoril test was rained off, but both he and Pedrosa clearly have a race set up, should the rain hold off on Sunday.
Casey Stoner's domination at Le Mans continues. After taking top spot in the morning, the Australian spent the first part of practice further down the standings before finding his feet towards the end, and punching in three laps in the 1'33s. He ended the session on top of the timesheets, a quarter of a second ahead of his Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa. Factory Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo finished in 3rd, within four tenths of Stoner, and three tenths ahead of San Carlo Gresini's Alvaro Bautista, who was impressively quick throughout. Bautista got in front of the second Factory Yamaha of Ben Spies, while Andrea Dovizioso won the battle of the Monster Tech 3 Yamahas, but only by twenty-five thousandths, Cal Crutchlow ending behind Dovizioso in 7th. Hector Barbera led the Ducatis, the Pramac man finishing in 8th, ahead of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden.
It is hard to upstage Valentino Rossi. It takes something large, significant, to take the limelight away from the nine-time World Champion, and the man who has been the charismatic heart of MotoGP for the best part of 15 years. To do that, you have to "Go big or go home," as British road racer Guy Martin likes to put it.
At Le Mans, Casey Stoner upstaged Rossi. The press conference – usually a rather staid affair, with the usual niceties about the track, each rider's chances at the circuit and a couple of witticisms – started unusually, with Nick Harris, the veteran commentator who leads the official press conferences, saying that Stoner would like to make a statement to the press. Stoner then proceeded to press the big red button that set Twitter, the internet and newswires ablaze. In the process, he did not so much ignite the 2013 MotoGP Silly Season, as douse it in liquid oxygen and set a flame thrower to it.
Stoner's announcement that he will retire at the end of this season has been covered in depth just about everywhere – see transcripts of his statement to the press here, and his detailed responses to questions here – but the question is, what happened to the Australian's denials exactly two weeks ago at Estoril of the stories that emerged in the Spanish press? Was the report in Solo Moto correct, and had Stoner already decided to retire at Jerez, or was Stoner being truthful when he denied any decision had been made. Piecing together the puzzle of what happened over the past few weeks, the following picture emerges.
The first three races in the history of the new Moto3 class have given three different winners and, with round four just around the corner at Le Mans, any one of Sandro Cortese, Maverick Viñales or Romano Fenati could get their second win of the season. Or perhaps Spaniard Luis Salom will find that tiny thing he still needs to become part of the exclusive club of new “quarter litre” category winners.
With an intelligent victory at the first race in Qatar, Viñales started 2012 season as he finished 2011, winning in a very consistent way and becoming the favourite among the fastest contenders for the first Moto3 world championship season. But just as life was not easy in the 125 class, neither is it in Moto3, so Viñales’s sixth place finish in round two at Jerez proved once more the old saying that a winner one week can be mid-pack the next. Back in the front again fighting for victory one week later in Portugal, Viñales and his FTR Honda suffered clear problems of top speed against Sandro Cortese’s KTM on Estoril's main straight. At the end, victory was decided when both riders touched each other while accelerating at the start of the third sector of the track, with advantage for Cortese on the inside line. Viñales was far from happy with the episode, and he even tapped Cortese’s arm after the checkered flag. Maybe Cortese’s move was not such fair play, but Viñales’ action should not have gone unnoticed by Race Direction, but it did. Back on the track Viñales got his first ever win last year at Le Mans, a track with such strong braking points that top speed does not seem to be a crucial issue.
At the start of the pre-event press conference at Le Mans, Casey Stoner made the following statement:
"Afternoon everyone.
"Basically, this has come after a long time of thinking, a lot of time talking with my family and my wife. This has been coming for a couple of years now, but at the end of this 2012 season, I will be not racing in the 2013 championship. I will be finishing my career at the end of this season in MotoGP and go forward with something different with my life.
"After so many years of doing the sport which I love, and which myself and my family made so many sacrifices for, after so many years of trying to get to where we have gotten to and this point. This sport has changed a lot, and it's changed to the point that I'm not enjoying it, I don't have the passion for it. So at this time, it's better if I retire now. There's a lot of things that have disappointed me and also a lot of things that I have loved about this sport, but unfortunately, the balance has gone in the wrong direction, and so basically I won't be continuing any more. It would be nice if I can stay that I will stay for just one more year, but then when does it stop? So we decided to finish everything as we are now."
The longer I get to work in the MotoGP paddock, the more it strikes me how many talented people contribute to the show by working behind the curtain while a small percentage of personalities get most of the media attention. Rhys Edwards, whom you may recognize from his frequent position in Casey Stoner’s seat during shots of the Respol garage, is one of many people I’ve met who manage to perform roles of great responsibility while remaining friendly, approachable and warm individuals. When I learned something about his background in Formula One, I assumed he would have an interesting story to tell about his career and how he arrived at HRC, and he was generous enough to let me ask him some questions about his experience during the final GP weekend at Estoril.
Scott Jones: Rhys, you’re Communications and Marketing Manager at Honda Racing Corporation. Many of our readers may not know exactly what that means, so could you give a brief description of your role at HRC?
As it should be, what was probably the last Portuguese Grand Prix for the foreseeable future left no one indifferent. Torrential storms became almost a tradition at Estoril, so nobody expected this edition to be any different after seeing clouds quickly come and go over the track from Thursday to Sunday. It would hardly have been a surprise to feel the rain start to fall at any given moment of the weekend, but thankfully, it held off.
Media attention was focused since early Thursday on rumours of Casey Stoner’s retirement published by Spanish magazine Solo Moto a few days earlier, but that turned out to be much ado about nothing, even more so after Stoner’s magnificent victory on Sunday against Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.
But leaving aside MotoGP, with its high tech prototype bikes, and riders so close to perfection that it is almost impossible to overtake, the Moto2 and Moto3 classes gave the real action at Estoril with two thrilling races decided in the last few corners.
Waiting for Le Mans
Round four at the hard braking –or heart breaking – track of Le Mans for the French Grand Prix this weekend will see a new chapter added to the 2012 volume of the toughest Moto2 fights, featuring Marc Marquez, Thomas Luthi, Pol Espargaró and Andrea Iannone, the fastest men right now in Moto2.
