British MotoGP: Tyre temperature hampers Casey Stoner

Casey Stoner reckoned the cool and chilly conditions at Silverstone today hampered his bid to finish higher than sixth on the grid for the British MotoGP clash.

The Australian suffered his worst qualifying result of the campaign when he ended only sixth fastest and over a second away from the fast pace set by world championship leader Jorge Lorenzo. 

The 2007 world champion ended with a best time of 2.04.394 to finish 0.062s behind factory Ducati team-mate Nicky Hayden and he said: “I didn’t get a qualifying lap in. We tried running the hard tyres but we are not generating enough temperature, so we used the softer option to find a race set-up and we will probably race with them unless there is a lot more temperature.

“The soft tyre will last the race. I had one soft tyre for qualifying and went out and (Aleix) Espargaro cut me off at the first corner. I lost that lap and the second lap I couldn’t generate enough grip.

“We are struggling to get tyre temperatures but it seems the more laps we do the worse the tyre temperature becomes and I have big grip issues on the left side, not the right.”

Stoner said the cool track conditions were not a factor with surface temperatures only reaching 27 degrees as air temperatures barely hit 16 degrees at a blustery Silverstone.

Stoner also denied the notoriously bumpy surface had an impact on his pace and added:” The tarmac is not a big problem. The grip is okay but it is more our set-up not generating the temperature.

“We have tried putting more force on the rear but we lost too much turning on the exit, so it is not the track temperature, which is similar to yesterday. For me the air temperature is really cold and it is difficult, it is cooling off the tyres too much.”

Forecast are for more favourable and hotter conditions for tomorrow’s race and Stoner, who has yet to claim a podium finish in 2010, added: “We can hope for that but we will try some things in the morning to put some more load on the bike. This morning we had a good set-up but then we didn’t go in the right direction and now we have figured out we need to somehow put a lot more pressure on the front and rear. 

“We are running at least 10 degrees less than anyone else on the tyres.’ Everybody else is generating grip and temperature so we have to do the same. On other circuits when everybody else is struggling to make a tyre last the race that’s when our bike can be very good so its just pros and cons. If we get a couple of really hot races maybe our bike will be better but at this track we have to find a solution.”

Stoner though did concede that his GP10 was having a hard time mastering the bumpy surface at the fast and challenging Silverstone track.

He added: “On the bumps our bike is really nervous, very stiff and very aggressive so we need to make the bike go over the bumps easier. But then we don’t generate the pressure on the tyres for grip so it is a vicious cycle to get everything in balance. Without the bike going smoothly over the bumps we can’t use the grip anyway.”