Poleman Stoner explains mystery bug

The ability to do anything is always tempered by a high fever and body weakness, but dominating practice for a MotoGP race takes demands to another level. Casey Stoner had been able to defy illness on Friday in Brno, and a combination of an improvement in condition and an early qualifying lap gave him a sixth consecutive pole position for the Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceske republiky.

Stoner set the eventual pole position time on only his fourth of eleven laps, a decision that he was not expecting to be so successful.

`At the beginning it was just a question of putting down a marker that would at least leave us on the front row, and fortunately when I went back out after a small change there was too much water to go any faster,´ said Stoner, who won last year´s race after leading every lap.

`We decided to make a couple of changes in case it was really wet tomorrow –which it looks like it´s not going to be. This track is always tricky, even in the dry, but I think everyone prefers that we have a dry race tomorrow.´

The front row for the Brno showdown would not look out of place in a doctor´s waiting room, with Valentino Rossi (ear infection) and John Hopkins (recently returned from a leg injury) joining Stoner on the front row. The Ducati Marlboro´s own ailment has progressed to a more comfortable condition, although its exact nature remains a mystery.

`Before I left Australia I caught a bit of a bug, thinking that it was just a head cold until yesterday. We don´t really know what it was. Straight away after sweating it out at night I came out this morning with a worse head cold but my general condition was a lot better. We´ve been lucky, because yesterday it wasn´t looking too good for us,´ concluded the reigning World Champion.