SIXTH STRAIGHT POLE FOR STONER, PROGRESS FOR MELANDRI

2008-08-16 08:37
As predicted by the weather forecasts, qualifying for the Czech Republic Grand Prix took place in wet conditions today, with light morning rain intensifying throughout the day. Despite the difficult conditions Casey Stoner took his sixth consecutive pole position - a new record since the introduction of the four-stroke MotoGP era.

Marco Melandri enjoyed his best qualifying session of the season as he set the eleventh fastest time, which he set when the track conditions were at their worst - with vast quantities of standing water. The Italian will start tomorrow's race from the fourth row of the grid.

CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) Pole position

"We went out at the start and tried to basically put a good few laps together because we still didn't really know what weather was going to do. It looked like it might clear up but it actually did the opposite. I still wasn't totally happy with the set-up so I came in to make some changes but when we went back out there was two or three inches of standing water in some places and the bike was aquaplaning everywhere. We knew that as long as the rain kept coming as it did then nobody was going to be able to go much quicker because the track conditions were so difficult. Once again we have worked well together as a team, Bridgestone have given us some excellent rain tyres and we're on pole, so that is very satisfying. The points are not dished out until tomorrow and anything can happen, especially in the wet, so we'll just stay focused, stay relaxed, and hope the weather stays dry!"

MARCO MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team) 11th - 2'15. 880

"I know this is my best qualifying result of the season but I was hoping for better given that in the wet this morning we did such a good job. Unfortunately in the afternoon I didn't have such a good feeling over the first few laps with the power delivery and then the conditions deteriorated. I stayed out on track and got quite a long run together, trying to improve and we made up some positions. We'll see - tomorrow should be dry but I'm still expecting a difficult race because we didn't get chance to improve the front-end setting today, which is what we'd planned."

Source: Ducati

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