Casey Stoner admits he couldn't make hard tyres work in Catalunya Grand Prix

The result was the first time since Jerez in early 2011 - when Stoner was taken out by Valentino Rossi - that the Honda rider had not been on the podium.

Stoner started from pole position, but fell back immediately in the race, running as low as sixth for a spell, before recovering to push Tech 3 Yamaha's Andrea Dovizioso for third. While his team-mate Dani Pedrosa finished second with the same choice of hard tyres, Stoner felt his rubber option cost him too much ground early on.

"I'm a little disappointed, we gave it everything at the end but we just didn't have the pace, especially in the beginning with the hard tyre," said Stoner.

"It seemed that only Dani could really make that tyre work today and he made it work better than us."

The Australian said he had been concerned that wear would be too high on the soft tyre, which Jorge Lorenzo used on his way to victory, and that the hard would allow him to be stronger in the closing stages.

"With the performance we had during the weekend we expected to be a little stronger throughout the race," Stoner said. "We knew the beginning was going to be tough but we believed that towards the end we would be able to run a higher pace.

"We weren't sure if the softer tyre was going to be a problem for us in the race so we took the safer option today. We thought we had a better bike and better pace, but it didn't come together.

"Still we came home with some points and we have the test here tomorrow to work on the chatter issues so I'm sure we'll be back fighting at the top again soon."

The Catalunya result leaves Stoner 20 points behind leader Lorenzo in the MotoGP championship standings.