Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner has revealed he has been suffering with a lack of edge grip since the Barcelona MotoGP round and it was the reason Jorge Lorenzo was able to slip under him in the last corner at the Sachsering on Sunday.
The former world champion says that every time he turn in to a corner, the bike becomes unsettled and as soon as he tries to get the throttle open, it spins. The clutch HRC use to eliminate chatter has exacerbated the problem and a new swingarm at Mugello only helped fractionally.
"We have struggled with edge grip for the last three or four races to be honest and it's something we have been trying to improve. We've made tiny steps but nothing near what we need," said Stoner.
"We've had the problem since Le Mans but that track covers it as you can pick the bike up and drive it out. Barcelona was where we started to have really big problems. In the long corners we had nothing going in, it wanted to come round on me and we have been trying to get something sorted since then.
"The new swingarm at Mugello made a small difference but that was edge grip on the throttle not off it so we've covered the problem up not fixed it. We've still got a long way to go to get the bike settled when I come off the gas."
