Stoner tames chatter for MotoGP calendar sweep

Casey Stoner's victory at Estoril on Sunday means the reigning world champion has now won MotoGP races at all 18 venues on the present calendar.

The Repsol Honda star lost the lead to fast-starting team-mate Dani Pedrosa for a few metres at turn one, but got back ahead on the exit and held first place to the finish.

Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo was just a few tenths from the Australian for much of the race, with Pedrosa also in touch.

But Stoner weathered the pressure, tamed a chatter problem and then stamped out Lorenzo's victory hopes by pulling several vital bike lengths in the closing stages.

"In the end it was another fantastic weekend for us," said Stoner, whose 42nd victory in all classes equals the record of Max Biaggi and Tony Mang.

"In warm-up we didn't have a big problem with chatter but then for the race, under the warmer conditions, we struggled a lot more. This was very difficult to ride with, in the first part of the race I was confident and attacking the track, but I closed the front twice due to the chatter.

"From this point I backed off a little, tried to stay smooth and just wanted to stay in front of Jorge and Dani, but Jorge was coming strong. I had to try and keep my pace and not make too many mistakes.

"I was changing the mapping to try and reduce the chatter problem. Towards the end of the race I began to understand how to ride around it, this made things smoother and I found some more pace and was able to bring it home for a great race win".

Stoner's second victory from three 1000cc starts also puts him at the head of the 2012 standings for the first time, albeit by just one point over Yamaha's Lorenzo.

Stoner will be back on track during Monday's post-race test.