By Stephen EnglishCasey Stoner may have looked comfortable en route to his first victory of the year at
Jerez on Sunday, but the reigning
MotoGP orld champion admitted after the Spanish Grand Prix that he is still suffering from arm pump.
“It was nowhere near as bad as we had in Qatar, but it was the same problem again,” said Stoner, who dropped from third to first at Losail.
“I was struggling to grip the bike to change direction. I'd put my body to the other side of the bike and pull myself forward to get the weight transfer of the bike [to turn].”
With the majority of this weekend's running having taken place in wet conditions, Stoner was not able to test his conditioning prior to the race due to the fact that the slower speeds of riding in the wet reduce the g-forces on the rider.
Having lost half-a-second to second place finisher
Jorge Lorenzo on lap 18 the Australian had to suffer through the closing nine laps as his condition impacted on his performance.
Stoner held off Lorenzo's Yamaha by 0.947s and is confident that he “should recover in the next day or days.”
With practice ahead of the Portuguese Grand Prix just five days away, time is not on Stoner's side but he is still refusing to accept surgery as a possible solution.
“We need to have a talk with some people and try and come up with something different again, but it's difficult because I really want to stay away from the surgery.”
Stoner has now closed to within four points of Lorenzo in the early championship standings.