Ever wonder why Casey Stoner is usually the last rider to line up on the grid? Simple, Ducati has a special grid strategy, a procedure that allows their riders to complete the race without fear of running out of fuel.
The goal is warm the tires as soon as possible and avoid an excessive fuel consumption.
The rider heads out on the spare bike and brings the tires up to temperature as soon as possible with no worry about fuel, because the bike he’s using will not be used in the race.
Instead of heading to the grid, the Ducati rider heads back to the pitlane and changes to his race bike and leaves the lane and rides back on track at a very low speed to minimize fuel consumption.
Once on the grid the tires are replaced with those that have been brought up to the right temperature on the spare bike and kept up with tire warmers.
Unfortunately for Casey Stoner, the usual strategy didn’t work today at Valencia, because the Aussie was so psyched up, that he got on his race bike instead of his spare, didn’t return to the pitlane and his tires were simply cold.
Sometimes explanations are much more complicated than simply admitting we fucked up.