"I actually think this was one of Casey's best races," said Suppo. "He had the composure to take control of the situation when a quite unusual problem came out. He was able to hold his nerve and he produced an outstanding ride, with the fourth fastest time of the race and important points for the championship. It's been a strange weekend but Casey is still in there, his potential remains intact and we're happy about that."
Stoner remains fourth in the world championship standings, 21 points behind joint leaders
Jorge Lorenzo and
Dani Pedrosa, but team-mate
Marco Melandri is just 13th in the championship table after his worst race result of a nightmare season so far.
"The result in the race is a direct reflection of a difficult weekend, during which we've been unable to find a satisfactory set-up for the bike," said Marco, who finished 13th. "All I can do is wait and hope that this proves to be the second of the two worst races for us this season and that things start to be more favourable from China onwards."
Stoner and his powerful Ducati won last year's Chinese Grand Prix, which features the longest straight on the
MotoGP calendar.
