Stoner pleased with first session back

The Australian is making his comeback for Ducati this weekend, having missed the last three races while recovering from illness and fatigue.

He set the fourth fastest lap at Estoril today and matched the times of Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa for much of the hour-long practice, behind pace-setter Jorge Lorenzo.

But Stoner admitted that he had to take a break during the session after struggling for fitness.

"Physically, I feel about as well as you could expect considering that I haven't trained properly for almost four months now, and I'm pleased with that," he said. "So far so good. It was great to be back out there on the bike today and I really enjoyed myself.

"One thing I did struggle with was arm pump, which I expected, and I needed a bit of rest in the later stages of the session. I expect the problem to ease over the weekend but I haven't to be careful not to push it too hard and exacerbate it further."