Stoner reviews first pole position of new season

Looking back over another successful evening in the Arabian desert on Saturday Casey Stoner pragmatically reviewed his sensational qualifying performance at the 2009 Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar.

The 2007 World Champion stated, “We knew the lap was there all along. We got into the low 1’56 area with the hardest compound tyre and then we went a lot faster with our softer tyres in the early evening session, so we knew we could go quite a bit faster. We just needed to wait for the qualifying session. Everything went reasonably well, I didn’t feel I got the most out of the softer tyres, but it was enough to be on pole so we are happy with the way things are going.”

The winner of the last two races in Qatar, Stoner was typically straightforward as he admitted he is not quite ready for the first race of the year despite his rapid Saturday pace. The Ducati Marlboro rider revealed, “We have still got a bit more work to do before the race tomorrow. We don’t feel like we have got the set-up really where we want it yet but I’m sure everyone else is in the same position. With much less time as we have on track now it is much harder to get everything right before the race but we have to make do with what we’ve got.”

Asked about his expected race pace for Sunday he replied, “It is difficult to say because if the weather stays nice and clear, not too windy, if the dust does not come back on the track then the pace should increase.”