Stoner puts Valencia victory down to luck and judgement

With little dry practice time to prepare for what was ultimately a sunny race in Valencia, Casey Stoner was just like every other rider on the MotoGP grid in looking for a race setup in the morning warmup. Victorious in the season finale after leading from the first lap, the Ducati rider explained afterwards that a bit of good fortune had aided his path to the chequered flag.

`I don´t think anybody really knew how the race would be; each wet session was different so you couldn´t get an understanding of how the bike was working,´ explained Stoner after closing the year with a win from pole position.

`We were struggling in the wet, and just started to get a good feel when it turned dry. Before we didn´t know what to expect: qualifying is qualifying and we´ve gone very well with that this year, but on race tyres we didn´t know where we were. People were finding solutions in the warmup, but our tyres were getting destroyed so we were a little worried. We had a setting that I don´t we could have equaled if we´d have had all weekend to work on it. We were really lucky to stumble across it.´

The race was Stoner´s last with the number 1 plate, earned by his winning the 2007 World Championship, and the Australian sees a title assault from the front as the best strategy for the upcoming 2009 campaign.

`Aside from Qatar we didn´t lead the championship this year, we were the ones attacking the whole time. Next year we want to get everything to 100%, but this is definitely the best way to finish the season,´ he concluded.