Stoner Fumes at Slow Riders

Casey Stoner will start from second place in this Sunday’s Catalunya Grand Prix, but the Australian rider was not at all happy with how the other competitors conducted themselves in the final stages of the qualifying session. According to the Ducati rider, some of them deliberately slowed down in his fast lap in order to have a clear field on the start/finish straight line behind his Ducati.

The Aussie was not in contention for pole position until late in the qualifying session, when he set up the second fastest time.

“There are just so many riders out there waiting for a tow. It's like being back on a 125 and it's starting to get ridiculous. People need to stop doing that and instead go out and do things for themselves,” said Stoner.

“They don't just follow you and slot in behind either. They make sure they stuff you up on the next lap too. And I really wasn't able to do the lap I thought I could.”

However, he did admit he was happy with the overall performance of his bike, although early in the qualifying session the guys at Ducati did not get the set-up right.

“We were generally happy with the race pace this morning, even if we still need to find a few more tenths. But we decided to go a different direction for qualifying and it just didn't end up being the right thing. Because we didn't have the morning set-up, we struggled with the bike more than we expected, but when we went back to the old settings, it was much better,” concluded Stoner.