Tough guy Stoner secures 2008 MotoGP runner-up position

The views of Ducati Marlboro colleagues Casey Stoner and Marco Melandri, after a tough race for both riders - for contrasting reasons - at the Polini Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Casey Stoner - sixth

`I had no feeling whatsoever from my injured hand today, it just wasn´t working. It meant I had to put all the pressure on to my right hand and in such physically demanding conditions it was really difficult. It started cramping up and I couldn´t even get the throttle fully open down the straights. To be honest I don´t think we quite found a perfect set-up this weekend but I can´t complain about that because I wasn´t able to push the bike to the limit today. It´s been a tough weekend and we have another one coming up at Valencia, which we will push hard to get through with as good a result as possible before finally looking ahead to the operation. At least we have the runner-up spot already in the bag, which is an achievement I think myself and the whole team can look back on and be very proud of.´

Marco Melandri – sixteenth

`There are only negatives to take out of a race like that. We went back to the settings we used yesterday afternoon but I didn´t have the same feeling. I had hardly any feeling with the front from the first few laps and I couldn´t brake hard into the corners. From then on things just got worse. I went for a softer rear tyre so the grip was good at the start but I almost crashed a couple of times in the fast corners in the second half of the race and that took away any shred of confidence I had left.´