Stoner fourth in Brno QP

Casey Stoner will start from the second row in the Cardion ab Grand Prix Czech Republic tomorrow after the Australian qualified just 0.003 seconds off the front row.

Stoner has struggled to find the ideal set-up for his Desmosedici GP10 at this circuit but rode around his problems to challenge for pole position in an exciting finish to the session, which saw the top three riders separated by mere thousandths of a second before Dani Pedrosa emerged to secure pole by three-tenths.

Casey Stoner:

“This morning went a lot better than yesterday, we found quite a good solution and I was happy with the lap times considering the track was still a little damp after the storms last night. We hoped we could make progress in qualifying this afternoon but at the beginning every setting we tried seemed to go in the wrong direction. When we got the front working better we encountered a problem with the rear and vice-versa and we spent a lot of time coming in and out of the garage. It wasn’t until the last half hour that we found something better and on my second-last exit I tried to push harder but ran off the track a little bit and destroyed the lap time. I decided to come in and have another go on a fresh tyre and if it wasn’t for another rider in my way going into the last two corners I could have been on the front row. I’m disappointed in that respect but relatively happy with our pace in general. A few people are having problems with the front so it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow, hopefully we can hang at the front.”

Ducati Team press release