Stoner struggles with Jerez wind

The 2007 world champion complained that high cross-winds blowing across the circuit had affected the handling of his bike, which he had previously been happy with, to a huge extent.

"I was fine on the bike until the wind came around, and after that I was not comfortable at all, in fact I was over the edge to try and get a decent lap time in," Stoner told BBC TV.

"This circuit's never been good for the Ducati, but we've finally found something that's allowing us to be competitive here.

"But then this wind came up and our fairing's quite a bit bigger than everyone else's, so it affected us more than anyone else. I'm a little bit disappointed and I just hope that it won't be this windy in the race and we might be in with a shot."

The 23-year-old Australian admitted that he faced a tough task to beat local heroes Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, who put their Yamaha and Honda respectively ahead of Stoner on the grid.

"I've never been one myself to up my pace in my home race, but the Spanish guys are able to and they'll both be very hard to beat tomorrow. They're both good riders and they're both riding very well too," he added.