Casey Stoner's hopes of retain💮ing his MotoGP World Championship crown have suffered a set-back after a mid-race off consigned him to a lowly eighth place finish during the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello.

A week after his crash just two corners from the end of the German Grand Prix, the Australian endured an unusually anonymous weekend💫 on Italian soil as 🍌he struggled with the set-up of his Repsol Honda.

The only 𝓀rider to opt for the 'special' harder Bridgestone rear tyre, Stoner ran towards the back of the chasing pack during the opening stages, but an error on lap ten would see him take a lengthy trip off the circuit at the Correntio bend, dropping him back t♉o a distant tenth position.

Though he fought his way back up to eighth position, administering a robust pass on Alvaro Bautista en route, Stoner eventually crossed the li💫ne a frustrated eighth.

"It's definitely not the way we planned it, we thought today we could be fightin🌳g for the podium and maybe have the pace to stay with Dan🌄i, Jorge has ridden fantastically all weekend and hasn't really put a foot wrong but I think a third position would have been good today. However, we just couldn't get the bike working.

"During our last attempts in warm up we couldn't get anything to work, we weren't very happy with the bike today and I just didn't feel comfortable. I made a mistake in the race, I ha💟d a bit of a shake exiting turn 11 and when I arrived at turn 12 I had no brakes

"I was squeezing them as hard as I could and thought I had enough brake power to stop before the edge of the track but I had too much mome๊ntum and had to ride through the gravel trap which wasted a lot of time."

Reflecting on his clash with Bautista, which was prompted when Stoner's aggressive attempt to p꧃ass at turn two saw him run wide and make contact with the Spaniard, the two-time champꦛion apologised for the incident.

"I'm sorry for the incident with Alvaro, I went to make the pass into turn 2 and he started to close my front off 🥀and I couldn't do anything. It's a disappointing end to a difficult weekend that I thought I might be able to salvage something from but unfortunately not."

Scori💛ng juౠst eight points at the Sachsenring and Mugello, Stoner finds himself 37 points behind Jorge Lorenzo in the overall standings with nine races remaining.