Stoner talks push start, marshals and payback

Honda has made modifications to Casey Stoner's factory RCV to make it easier to push start, after the Australian was forced to park an undamaged bike in Jerez.

Stoner was incensed by the reaction of marshals after being brought down by Valentino Rossi early in the wet Spanish Grand Prix.

Rossi, whose Ducati engine remained running, was able to rejoin and finish fifth. But Stoner - who began the race on pole and was second at the time of the incident - couldn't get enough assistance from marshals to re-fire his hard-to-start Repsol bike.

On the eve of this weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix, round three of the 2011 championship, Stoner was asked if it was humanly possible to restart the Honda.

"I think there was a test done in the past with the same clutch and yes you can get it started," he replied. "Of course it's hard work and pushing uphill with one person on a wet track [as at Jerez] you are not going to get the right amount of grip."

Stoner then revealed changes, almost certainly to the clutch, had been made: "By the looks of it we've already fixed that problem for this weekend. So we should have no dramas."

Nearly four weeks have passed since the incident, but Stoner remains frustrated at the conduct of marshals, who appeared most concerned with getting superstar Rossi back in the race - even though the Italian needed no outside assistance once back on his feet.

"When there is favouritism [from the marshals] I don't think it's correct," said Stoner. "Not only from myself, but I know a lot of other riders I spoke to after the race as well. They had the same problem with the marshals. They just weren't willing to help.

"These bikes aren't light. I'm sure everybody in MotoGP wants to see more bikes finish than less so if it's a small crash and you can get up and go again there should be people there to help."

Stoner rejected the suggestion that it wasn't the job of marshals to restart bikes.

"As long as grand prix has been going [marshals] have been trying to get riders back in the race," said the 2007 world champion. "There's no way I've seen only riders get their bikes going for so many years.

"For sure it's not clever if they are trying to get bikes going on the track with other bikes going past. But there is also a moment when you are by far the last rider on track and their help could be needed and used.

"You have to use common sense. When is the right moment to try and help, But at the same time if a rider is going to be on track trying to push his own bike it might be better to have more help and get the bike going quicker."

A meeting is to be held this weekend to investigate the actions of the marshals, but Stoner doubts it will mean much.

"I don't see what the meeting is going to do. These people made their own choices and that's it," he said.

Rossi apologised to Stoner in front of the TV cameras straight after the race, when Stoner was overheard to reply "Your ambition outweighed your talent".

The Australian wanted to clarify that he was talking purely about that incident and also dismissed any talk of 'pay back'.

"Somebody asked me yesterday if I was going to return the favour to Valentino. Valentino did this by accident. It wasn't on purpose," said Stoner. "Some people also misinterpreted what I said. I said Valentino 'ran out of talent', at that point, not that he has 'run out of talent' [as a rider].

"The marshals were the bigger problem. To have one marshal helping me try and start the bike. Even getting one point from the race would have been good. That didn't go down so well with us."

Stoner, winner of round one, is now 20 points behind world championship leader Jorge Lorenzo.