Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner has to wait until his fuel load came down before his RC212V would behave as he wanted it but that, added to a setup change during morning warm-up, gave him the grip to win yesterday's Laguna Seca MotoGP.

The 2007 world champion installed himself in third place off the line but couldn't get the feel he needed to push with 21 litres of fuel on board so waited until it began to reduce before he passed team-mate Dani Pedrosa at the top of The Corkscrew and then went under Jorge Lorenzo for the lead into turn one.

"All weekend we've been struggling a little so we weren't too confident that we could run with Jorge and Dani [Pedrosa] in the race. However, this morning in warm up we found something I was a little happier with. Before the race I felt relaxed, confident and generally calm, we started a little slower to get the tyres warm gently but also with a full tank of fuel, the bike didn't feel that great," said Stoner.

"So I was patient and took my time, staying with Jorge and Dani to control the gap and make sure they didn't get too far away. I felt I had more speed but decided to wait and watch. I saw Dani struggling a bit and he started to drop back from Jorge so I had to attack at this point.

"Once I caught up to Jorge, I watched to see if he made a mistake and kept the pressure on him, then chose my moment to make the move and was able to slowly open up a gap and bring the race home. It's really fantastic to come from such a difficult weekend and get a great win and I'm very thankful to all my team."