Team LCR rider Casey Stoner has qualified in eighth position for the German Grand Prix, with an impressive performance on just his second day aboard an updated Honda RC211V. With improved front-end feel, Stoner has elected to race his updated bike in tomorrow’s 27 lap race, after making a positive step forward in just four hours of track time.

Stoner set aside his standard Honda RCV today to concentrate solely on the revised chassis, working across all areas of set-up -- front and rear suspension, tyre choice and fine-tuning engine management and braking stability. Most importantly, Stoner posted a string of fast and consistent times on race tyres. With 16 minutes remaining in qualifying Stoner claimed provisional pole before slipping back to the third row on his final qualifying run in warm and sunny conditions.

“On race tyres Casey was fast and consistent, considering the team had to make many set-up changes with the updated chassis. The qualifying tyre system does not always show the real potential of all the riders and as always, Casey will be at his strongest under race conditions”.

“Today I just concentrated on the updated chassis and I now have a much better feeling -- it is a positive step forward considering it is only my second day on this bike. The team had to change most of the settings from the standard RCV and we are slowly moving forward -- especially with a more positive feeling from the front-end. My first qualifying run was really good and I then switched to adifferent rear tyre, but it pushed the front on the second run. The race could be difficult from the third row, there are not many places to overtake. I’ll need good start, the first corner is a little scary- it’s very tight.”