Casey Stoner says Honda has room for improvement after day one at Catalunya

The Australian still insisted he was happy with his overall pace, shrugging off the significance of finishing second practice down in 10th by describing the rush to move onto soft rubber as being more akin to qualifying than practice.

"This afternoon we used the harder tyre and they seemed to be a little more consistent. We're still not very happy with how the bike is feeling and we can certainly improve on that but we're fairly happy as far as pace is concerned," the reigning champion explained.

"There are lots of things to try before qualifying tomorrow, we need to continue working on reducing the chatter and a few other things.

"We're still not very happy with how the bike is feeling and we can certainly improve on that but we're fairly happy as far as pace is concerned. Everyone seemed to treat this afternoon's session like it was qualifying, using the softer tyre but in the end this is their choice. In general we're pretty happy."

Works Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa said understanding whether the soft compound could work - and last - during the race could be key to his weekend fortunes.

"Our main target today has been to properly test the tyres because it will be very important to make the right choice for the race. Here in the past, the soft tyre worked quite well with high temperatures, but we still don't know how long it will last," he said.

"I did the whole morning practice with the softer compound and I kept the hard in the afternoon and I felt good with both. My lap times were almost identical in both conditions, and the riders in front put the softer at the end, so I'm not worried with my position today.

"It's also true than they have improved the times by a second, so we will need to understand better if the softer will last the race distance. 25 laps are a lot, you spend a lot of time on the edge of the tyre and it's important to keep them fresh until the end. We will keep working on some details tomorrow morning in order to be ready for the qualifying."