Casey Stoner not comfortable with his Honda despite Catalunya pole

The Australian's gap of almost 0.15 seconds to Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo came after he bolted soft front and rear tyres to his Honda in the final minutes of qualifying.

Stoner cautioned however that Honda will likely use the hard compound, with which the chatter issues are exaggerated, in the race, especially if Sunday is also swelteringly hot.

"This morning we did a lot of work with the hard tyre, so in the afternoon in these hot conditions, we worked more with the softer one to get a clearer understanding if we can run with it for race distance," Stoner explained.

"We were in and out a lot during the session trying a few different things, hoping to reduce the chatter which is still proving to be a problem. As soon as I touch the throttle the bike starts to chatter in the rear and it's making things very difficult.

"Towards the end of the session we managed to improve it slightly but unfortunately with this heat and everything we have been struggling a lot more with chatter. I think we need to make another step before the race."

Stoner said Sunday's conditions could prove crucial in determining the outcome of the race, and said he expected several riders to be in with a shot of victory.

"In general we are pretty happy. We know there are people out there with pretty good pace, not just Jorge and Dani [Pedrosa], who can give us a race tomorrow," he said.

"I don't know if I'm confident of clawing back some points. It all depends on the conditions tomorrow."