Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Q and A with Casey Stoner

Q and A with Casey Stoner

World champion Casey Stoner has set the pace all weekend at Brno, and despite feeling distinctly under the weather, took pole position in torrentially wet conditions. Autosport.com caught up with him to take his temperature and get his feelings ahead of a pivotal race in his championship battle with Valentino Rossi.

Q. You weren't feeling very well on Friday, at that point in the weekend would a race distance have been impossible?

Casey Stoner: "No, no. People always pull it out of the bag, but I didn't want to waste any energy that I had. We didn't really get the option of doing a long run anyway, I don't think anybody did. We were basically trying to find a front tyre that would last long enough, because this track is really abrasive on the front. That was about it.

"We found a reasonable setting and we knew roughly that if we could do one lap, then we can do it consistently. We are already running the hardest tyre that we have and you can't ask much more from that."

Q. You said that you feel a lot better today, but this cold weather can't be making things much fun can it?

CS: "Today I'm finding it a lot more fun than yesterday. Yesterday was warm, but I was feeling as if I had about five percent of my health. I felt absolutely terrible. In the morning I felt like it was just still a head cold, I didn't feel as if I had any energy depleted. But like I said, I tried to put my glove on and I just started getting tired. My muscles just sort of immediately wore out from just trying to put my glove on.

"Then I realised it was more than just a cold, but I sweated it out a lot last night and I seem to have got rid of the worst part of it."

Q. Will you test here on Monday and Tuesday if you feel the way you do now?

CS: "I would say so. There are a few things that I have to test and few things that I want to test so no matter how I'm feeling I will get out there."

Q: With the new surface, is your tyre choice any wider than usual?

CS: "It's not any wider. Normally when you have such an abrasive surface, you narrow the choice down. Plus everybody has already tested here previously so we knew roughly what to expect. We knew that the front tyres were going to cop a pounding so we just went with the hardest selection that we could. I have actually got more of each tyre and less of a selection than I have had all season I think."

Q: What is it about Turn 3 that seems to make people crash so much?

CS: "For some reason, no matter what the circuit, whenever they resurface it you still find the same old issues. They have got rid of a few bumps that used to be on this circuit that have been here for a lot of years, but at the same time the same patches are still in the same places as before. So it's quite strange, especially when they take up all of the asphalt, get rid of it all and then resurface it completely. You expect them to get rid of these areas, but there is something coming out of the ground that causes it.

"It was the same at Donington and it is the some in other places, I don't really know why but there are a couple of points around here in the wet, that when there is a lot of standing water, it becomes very hairy."

Q. You always say you go better in the second half of the season, but you have said recently that you still need to recharge you batteries. Is that a worry?

CS: "It's never going to affect my racing. I would just like to have a bit more time to myself and a bit more time away from racing to think about it, then come back into it. I'm still going to perform the same, I'm still going to give it everything, I would just like to have slightly more time. Just a couple of days and I'll be fine."



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