Honda LCR rider Casey Stoner will start from eighth on grid in the British Grand Prix, a position that does not reflect his dazzling pace in race trim at Donington Park. Apart from the final 13 minutes of the afternoon qualifying session, Stoner was the dominant rider on the track today. He topped the times in morning free practice - 0.2s ahead of Dani Pedrosa.

While Pedrosa went to claim pole in the second one hour session, Stoner was consistently the quickest rider on race tyres. The 20 year-old Australian posted his qualifying time of 1’28.447, on used race tyres early in the session -- on lap 11 of 26. Stoner’s fastest lap today was a massive 1.5s under the lap record held by Colin Edwards. Unfortunately Stoner was unable to take advantage of his final run on soft qualifying tyres, although his race prospects remain strong despite his third row starting spot.

Even though Casey is starting on the third row this is not a big problem. I’m not worried at all -- other riders move forward on the soft tyres while we still have some problems adapting the set-up for Casey in qualifying. Casey’s race pace is very impressive.”

“I did my quickest time on race tyres, and worn race tyres at that. So I’m a little frustrated to be starting this far back on the grid, I should be closer to the front. Unfortunately the qualifying tyres were not making the bike react the way I wanted. It seems that the better race set-up I have, the worse the bike feels on a grippy qualifying tyre. My set-up is very good, and I’ll just have to try figure out where my strong points are compared to the other riders once the race starts.”