Casey Stoner misses being ‘set loose’ in MotoGP qualifying; ‘it was a lot of fun.’
After retiring from MotoGP, some riders miss the thrill of victory the most, but for Casey Stoner, the ultimate joy and satisfaction came from being let loose in qualifying for an all-out time attack.
During his career, the two-time MotoGP champion claimed 39 premier-class pole positions (from 117 starts), including a near-perfect front-row sweep of the 18 races during his Repsol Honda title season in 2011.
Only at Estoril, when he qualified fourth (+0.060s behind teammate Dani Pedrosa), did Stoner miss the front row that year.
On the track, the perfectionist noted that he was always under pressure ‘not to mess up’ and let his team down in races, but that practice and qualifying allowed him to have significantly more fun.
“The only times I’d [miss being on track] is probably around qualifying,” said Stoner, who used the re-opening of Australia’s borders to visit the paddock for the last two rounds of this season.
“I quite honestly didn’t ever enjoy race day that much. Sometimes it was nice and easy and everything went well. But when you’re on the edge of these [MotoGP bikes], it’s so easy to make those mistakes.
“And unfortunately, it was just part of my personality that I didn’t want to make mistakes. It’s not that I just wanted to go out there and ride, comfortably and naturally, it was like, ‘I don’t want to mess up’.
“Because I’ve got a whole team of people that are expecting something out of me. I learned to deal with that better in my later years and didn’t have to worry about that as much. But I don’t really get the wish or want to race again.
“I did enjoy practice and qualifying. Certainly not testing! But Practice and Qualifying was always fun when everything would come together and you got to go as hard and as fast as you possibly could for a lap or two.
“When you got everything right, I got way more of a thrill out of that than I ever did winning a race.
“Because in the races, you never went as hard as you could, you always had to manage tyres, fuel… you’re always managing a situation, and you look like a fool if you try and go as hard as you can and crash.
“So there was always a an element of holding back [in races], whereas qualifying a lot of the time you got to let loose. And that was a lot of fun.”
The #27 spent time trackside at Portimao and Valencia assisting his former team Ducati, which has yet to win a MotoGP race since Stoner in 2007.
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