MotoGP: Casey Stoner not fussed about front qualifying tyre

Reigning world champion Casey Stoner says it is not vital that Bridgestone rolls out a new front qualifying tyre in 2008.

One area where Michelin has a clear advantage over Bridgestone at present is with qualifying tyres, and Valentino Rossi recently said he is putting pressure on the Japanese factory to develop an improved front qualifier.

Michelin already has a front qualifier but Aussie Stoner says he isn’t worried at the prospect of having to carry on qualifying with a Bridgestone race tyre.

Casey Stoner won from fourth on the grid in the season’s opening race in Qatar and he said: “My front race tyre works fine with a qualifier and we can use this to have more in our tyre allocation.

“I don’t care about qualifying, we need to be towards the front and it’s not really a big interest of mine to start running front qualifiers.

“As long as I am on the first two rows I’m not bothered. I care more about the set-up on race tyre.”