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Stoner angry about camera problem

World champion Casey Stoner has hit out at the MotoGP organisers after a loose on-board camera marred his Portuguese Grand Prix

The Ducati rider dropped down to 11th in the early stages as the camera interfered with his control of the bike, before later recovering to sixth place.

"The beginning of the race wasn't so good. I didn't have a good feeling when there was a bit of water," Stoner told Italia1 television.

"Then I started to have a better feeling, but unfortunately we had a problem with a Dorna camera - the box for the video camera was coming out and hitting my hand, and getting stuck in the clutch.

"So I'm very, very disappointed that something from Dorna, the organisers, was the cause of such a disappointment. I'm quite angry."

Stoner explained that he had to reposition the camera every time he reached a straight.

"I didn't know what it was and I was very afraid that the box was coming off and it was something important," he said.

"So I was trying to put it back in, and it would get in-between the steering and sometimes lock the clutch or lock the steering.

"In the end I learned how to ride around it: on each straight I would put the box back in a certain position and try to make it stay there, but the turbulence from the wind would always push the box back out."

After a difficult weekend in which Ducati had struggled for pace in every dry session, Stoner set an encouraging fourth-fastest lap as he came back through the field in the closing stages. He closed in on fifth-placed John Hopkins (Kawasaki) before crossing the line in sixth.

"For sure a better result was possible without this thing," Stoner said.

"We can take this positive from the weekend because it was not a good weekend for us. It was something that was not the fault of the bike, but the fault of the organisation. It was very, very frustrating."

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