Casey Stoner took some vital Championship points on Sunday at the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM with fourth position, following a hard working weekend, taking his best result of the season so far.

Stoner struggled for grip as he watched Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso get clear at the start of the event, the Aussie became involved in a three way challenge with Marco Melandri and Randy de Puniet for fourth spot.

“We expected to be a little faster in the race today especially using the softer option of the tyres, but unfortunately we just didn’t seem to generate any grip,” says Stoner. “We had a reasonable set-up in the morning warm-up which was a big step from yesterday, but we made another change for the race which didn’t seem to work so I wasn’t able to catch the guys in front. The guys behind me were using me as a good rabbit to chase, and I wasn’t able to pull away from them so I let them have their race and then on the last lap I knew it was time for me to get in the best points position possible.”

Considering how the weekend progressed so far, Stoner discussed the 13 Championship points he gained as very positive. “We’re pretty happy with the way the race went after the weekend we’ve had as we’ve really struggled,” he said. “It’s been tough not only for me but also for Nicky and Mika (Kallio, Pramac Racing). We’ve seen a lot of things happening that shouldn’t be so unfortunately we’re just not able to finish in the places we want.”

Nicky Hayden was not so lucky as he smashed out on lap five after losing the front end of his Desmosedici GP10 engine heading into Turn 12. The American lost pace prior to his fall, ending his race early.

“I got a terrible start which complicated things, and I let the clutch out and the bike bogged - it went backwards,” he states. “I wasn’t in front of a lot of guys in Turn 1 and I made a few passes in the first couple of corners and moved up a bit. But I really didn’t have a good pace and after the practices we had I expected to go a lot faster than that.”

Discussing the crash, Hayden adds, “I was pushing hard and had a few moments on the front and then going down into that Ducati corner I crashed. It’s a bummer for the team and everyone involved because we’d built up some momentum, but it happens and we have to stand up and brush ourselves down and go to Silverstone.”