But Stoner remained calm under pressure even when he dropped from second place to eighth on the eighth of the 28 laps. "I was just surprised to stay up today," he said later. "When I got on the wet-weather tyres I tried to take it easy and smart. I got passed a lot, but at the end of the race we brought it home and managed to reach the podium."
Wise words. Meanwhile, much of Stoner’s maturity is being attributed to the effect of his marriage at an unfashionably early age to his wife Adriana, who is just 18. They met at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia in 2003 when she asked him for his autograph.
But Adriana denies that marriage has influenced her husband’s on-track mentality.
"Obviously, he has matured, but he hasn’t changed much either as a rider or a person," she said at Le Mans. "Basically, Casey is the same person. It’s just that he has good people around him and I’m with him all the time. He’s a good guy and we’re happy together."
Bradley Can Inspire Laverty.
Stay firm, Eugene Laverty. Remember that in 2006 Bradley Smith qualified 25th for the 125cc event at Le Mans in 1min 47.396secs, and finished 21st in the race. This year he qualified second, in 1min 43.569secs (a reduction of 3.827secs) and finished third on his Repsol Honda - the youngest Briton ever to climb a grand prix podium.
It can’t be easy for Laverty in his first grand prix season, facing new tracks and adapting to a 250cc two-stroke after a grounding in British Supersport. On Sunday he picked up a solitary point for 15th place from 18 finishers. But just remember, Eugene, what a difference a year can make. And reflect, too, that LCR team owner Lucio Cecchinello’s previous protégé was...
Casey Stoner.
101 Starts Versus 19.
The most impressive aspect of Bradley Smith’s epic ride at Le Mans was his level of consistency and concentration. He didn’t seem to go a centimetre off line while the Czech rider Lukas Pesek pressured him from behind.
