Casey Stoner’s second recurring stage appearance at Montmeló on Sunday is another forward step in the direction that the Ducati Team racer needs to move, he feels that without a minor error on lap six, that he could have battled with Jorge Lorenzo for the win.

Following a tough start to the year, Stoner eventually claimed third position on the podium last weekend at Assen, and follows it up with a repeat performance at Catalunya on Sunday. He was in third position and challenging with Andrea Dovizioso as the duo kept close tabs on leader Lorenzo, when a minor detour off circuit sent him back to fifth.

Stoner recovered for the rest of the event to arrive third, but discusses that he had the speed to take the lead. “Without a small mistake of my own I think we could have been pushing for the lead for most of the race,” he says. “We had the pace to do that and the bike felt quite good, but unfortunately I just got the draft of both of them going into that turn, and the slipstream coming off the back of them buffered me a bit and brought the rear of the bike up. There was no way I was going to stop for that corner. So I thought it was better to play it safe and not hit anyone and finish the race.”

“I’m a little bit disappointed because I thought I could at least have been second. I thought I had the pace to close down on the front two but unfortunately I just couldn’t overtake the people in front of me and that was our biggest battle today. We’ll look forward to next week and try and solve these issues, but we’re feeling a lot more confident with the bike.”

Stoner arrived behind Dani Pedrosa, when asked about the difference between himself and the Spanish racer, he resonds, “Dani got all his exits right, he was braking quite consistently but with the gaps he was pulling out of every corner into the next one it was just impossible to close. I was already having small problems with the front end which was wanting to close, so there was no sense in going in there and risking it by doing a daring manoeuvre on the brakes and bringing us both down. It was better for me to pick my point and try and get past, but he didn’t make any mistakes and I give him credit for that.”

Looking ahead to Sachsenring, Stoner comments, “We have always had pretty good races there and I’m definitely looking forward to it after a race like this. We have a little more confidence in the bike and everything is working well, for the last three races really, so now we just need to put some really decent results together.”