[HOON69]

HRC announced on Friday that Casey Stoner will become a factory Honda rider in next year's MotoGP World Championship.

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The Australian 2007 World Champion, who rode in the Honda LCR Team in his debut MotoGP season in 2006, will rejoin Honda after four seasons with Ducati. Honda's complete factory team line-up for 2011 will be officially presented later in the season.
HRC Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto said:
"We are very pleased that Casey will join Honda again next year. Clearly he is one of the top riders in MotoGP and he will bring valuable speed and experience to our team. In the factory Honda squad we already have two very strong and experienced riders in Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso who are performing very well and currently hold second and third positions in the 2010 World Championship. HRC hopes also to retain these two riders for next year - giving us what would be a truly formidable line-up."

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Casey Stoner will ride for HRC next season after confirmation this morning (Friday, July 9th) that the 24 year-old Australian will end his association with Ducati, a relationship that lasted four years and delivered a MotoGP World Championship title in his first season with the Italian factory.
Ducati announced that after “four years of extraordinary collaboration” the final race of the 2010 season at Valencia on November 7th would signal the end of a partnership that started in 2007, the season in which the Desmosedici GP7 made its debut in the new 800cc category and in which Stoner won the MotoGP title.
“I would like to thank Casey on behalf of our fans and our sponsors, but most of all on behalf of all the people working at Ducati,” commented Filippo Preziosi, Ducati Corse General Director. “The victories and emotions he gave us rewarded all the hard work and sacrifice we made. In these four years together we have had a lot of great moments. Securing the 2007 MotoGP World Championship title and the victory at Mugello in 2009 were moments that we will never forget. In Casey we not only found an incredibly talented rider, but also an honest and loyal guy and that’s why there will always be a strong and sincere bond between us, even as a competitor.”
Stoner said: “I must thank Ducati for giving me such a great opportunity to race and win with them over these past four years. They took a gamble when they signed me at the end of 2006 as I was unknown, but as we worked together we were able to win a Championship, many races and challenge for the Championship in the last two seasons. I have now decided to move on and I will have new challenges in the future and different obstacles to overcome, but I will not forget these years with Ducati and the people I have had the privilege to work so closely with. So a big thanks to Ducati and all our sponsors who we have shared success with while achieving lifelong goals.”

[Mika]

should be interesting.

the honda gets out of the corners so much better than the ducati at the moment and I think the honda actually suits stoner's riding style a little better.

[Nunga]

Mika, on 10 July 2010 - 01:47 PM, said:

should be interesting.

the honda gets out of the corners so much better than the ducati at the moment and I think the honda actually suits stoner's riding style a little better.

By riding style you mean in the sand?

[HOON69]

After qualifying in second position for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix the Ducati Team rider is hoping that he can carry the pace he displayed into tomorrow’s race.

Casey Stoner battled to the bitter end of the hour-long qualifying session at Laguna Seca with Jorge Lorenzo for pole position in Sunday’s Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, eventually closing at 0.191s off the Spaniard’s best lap to secure second position on the grid.
Stoner had looked all set for his second pole of the season when he regained the lead on the timesheet from Lorenzo towards the end of the session, and the Australian then improved on his own time further before the Championship leader’s late effort pushed him in front.
“We’re closer to the front than last week but we still need to improve the bike before tomorrow,” stated Stoner, who qualified with a lap time of 1’21.169. “I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t make full use of the session this afternoon and ended up going back to the setting we had this morning. We tried a few different things that weren’t really working and unfortunately one of the settings took a long time to change so we wasted time there.”
Despite lamenting the time he felt had been lost during the session Stoner was happy with his best lap, having been consistently fast throughout the hour.
“To be honest I was happy to post the time I did,” he said. “I thought we could have gone a bit quicker today considering how good the bike felt from yesterday to this morning but we just didn’t take that extra step.”
And looking ahead to tomorrow’s race Stoner, who is going for his first win of 2010, added: “Hopefully we can take that step in the warm-up and have our most competitive race of the season tomorrow.”

[dilin1984]

Sad to hear that , ROSSI & STONER team should have been something special. Still for better fighting spirit they should be in different team. Anyway 2011 season will be a cracker.

[Brian]

I don't reckon Rossi and Stoner like each other at all. It's all friendly
for the cameras but I reckon there have been issues since that infamous crash.

Saying that, I don't think either of them will feature in next year's championship.
Not unless Ducati can learn how to make that thing turn or Honda can find some power.

[Marky Mark]

Hasn't Rossi gone to Ducati now?

[KrisCoz]

yeah Rossi / Hayden ducati
Honda: Stoner / Danny / Dovi (in his contract it said if he was in top5 by laguna seca he would have a factory ride so they gotta do something ??)

Yamaha: lorenzo / Spies
Tech 3: Possible count crutchlow / not sure