Casey Stoner once beat his teammate by a minute in the ‘easiest’ MotoGP race of his life

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Casey Stoner entered the 2008 MotoGP season as the reigning champion. He had become Ducati’s first champion in just his second year in the class.

Midway through 2008, Stoner was firmly in contention to retain the crown. A run of three straight victories left him third in the standings after the German GP, just 20 points behind Valentino Rossi.

But Yamaha rider Rossi took control of the championship thereafter. He took five successive victories, and six out of the next seven.

In the same period, Stoner crashed out from the lead at Brno and Misano. This strengthened Rossi’s grip, and he ultimately won the title by 93 points.

Casey Stoner won the 2008 Dutch TT with ‘60%’ effort

While the final outcome was disappointing, Stoner still has fond memories from 2008, particularly the Dutch GP, which he called the ‘easiest race’ of his career.

Stoner only beat Honda rider Dani Pedrosa by three-hundredths in qualifying but he was able to win the race at ‘60%’ effort. His final margin across the line was 11.3 seconds.

As if to make Stoner’s performance even more impressive, Ducati teammate Marco Melandri qualified 16th and finished last, just under a minute behind at the chequered flag.

“I think it was 2008 in Assen, the easiest race I’ve ever done in my life,” Stoner recalled in an interview with Motor Sport Magazine. “The slowest race. So cruisey. I was literally at 60%.

“I did not push one single lap and won by 12-13 seconds. It was like, ‘Wow, can we do that every single weekend please?’

“You are going around the track, looking at the TV screens, looking at everybody else’s race. You’ve got the time. I did that anyway in races, even when they were up my a—, because I would see where they were gaining or where I was pulling.

“It was such a pure feeling. To be going that fast and pulling those laptimes with no effort. It was very, very rare to be able to do that. An incredible feeling to be able to do that just once in your career.”

‘There were only three times I pushed for a full race,’ says Casey Stoner

Stoner ‘never wanted’ to ride flat out on a Sunday, and can only recall doing so in three of his 178 races. He found more satisfaction in reaching the limit in qualifying.

Neil Hodgson says Stoner could find that limit faster than any other rider, only requiring a few laps on a Friday.

“I always really enjoyed doing well in practice and qualifying, as much as that sounds strange,” the Australian explained. “The race had this whole build-up and I never wanted to push in a race.

“I think there was only three times in my whole career when I pushed from lap one to the end and I guess I got lucky that I didn’t crash.

“Qualifying is when you had to pull out something. And when I was able be on pole by over a second… I mean, two tenths is already a gap so when you can comfortably get it by over a second – and you still didn’t get everything out of it – on machinery when the next best rider on the same bike is in P16 you are kinda going, ‘Yeah.’

“And it’s not just because I was riding well but I did my work everywhere and the engineers, team all did their jobs. We were dominating everyone. Then we’d do the race and ride at 70%, disappearing at the front.”

Stoner has likened himself to Marc Marquez, but the Spaniard is known as a risk-taker throughout a weekend, even when leading. Last year, he crashed out of both the Americas GP and San Marino Sprint from P1.