Honda LCR rider Casey Stoner will start tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix from seventh position following a rain-interrupted qualifying session today.
Stoner recovered from a slow-speed fall at the final corner, just as a light rain shower hit the circuit 22 minutes into the session. As the scramble for grid positions resumed with less than 15 minutes remaining Stoner was second fastest, but dropped to seventh at the finish.

Stoner was forced to switch to his spare Honda RCV after his harmless crash but with a different set-up he lacked confidence in the front-end. In the morning practice session, the only dry session in two days, Stoner was again impressive, posting the fastest time -- 0.3s ahead of Nicky Hayden.
Tomorrow’s 22 lap race will be Stoner’s first MotoGP race at Shanghai where he won last year’s 250cc Chinese Grand Prix.

“The team has worked hard to find a very good race set-up but unfortunately this afternoon we did not have the perfect qualifying set-up. On his spare bike after the crash Casey complained about the front-end stability, especially with the soft rear qualifying tyres.
But Casey was also fast in the rain yesterday, and in dry practice this morning, so we are looking forward
to the race.”

“I had a small slip just as the rain started and then I had a problem with the front-end set-up on my spare bike, I kept losing it, so I wasn’t confident to push any harder. I was doing good times at the start of the session and making progress with the set-up but the spare had different settings, so I didn’t have a lot luck. I have a very good race set-up on my race bike but we still have to check tyre life for the race distance, that’s a bit of a worry at the moment. But overall I’m really happy with the weekend so far.”