Stoner baffled by practice accident

The world champion fell from his Ducati at the hairpin late in the session - moments after Pramac D'Antin rider Chaz Davies had crashed in a similar manner.

"It was my second lap out on new tyres so I was just taking it pretty easy," Stoner said.

"I saw the yellow flags and just as I entered the corner I saw the scrape marks, and as soon as I saw them my rear just completely came around on me. You saw Chaz's crash, and that was identical to what happened to me.

"So I'm really not sure what happened. There has to have been something on the track because nothing does that to you - water doesn't react like that. There was no way I could get it back, it just went. It was a pretty small crash, so everything was alright."

The incident was the only blemish on Stoner's day, as he was fastest in both sessions at his home circuit. The Australian was 1.3 seconds quicker than the opposition in the morning, and 0.269 seconds clear later on, but felt he could have gone faster.

"We should have been able to do at least a 1:31 flat with the new tyres we had, and we did 24 laps on them altogether today, so that's pretty good," said Stoner.

"Unfortunately I just kept mucking up in the last two corners when I was on a half-decent lap and ruined the laps. I think with the new tyres we should have been able to do at least mid-to-low 1:30s, so we're quite confident with the package we've got today."

The whole practice day was affected by intermittent rain, very cold temperatures and strong winds.

"It's been a typical Phillip Island day I suppose," Stoner said. "But I'd say out of all the years I've been to Phillip Island, I don't think it's been this mixed, with little showers here and there really just stuffing you up.

"You can't go out and get a decent dry setting, you can't get a decent wet setting. It's a little bit difficult."

But he was very happy with the new, smaller, fairing that Ducati had provided to reduce turbulence in windy conditions.

"The smaller fairing's definitely helped out today," said the champion. "We compared them in the wind and it was just black and white, basically. It was so much easier for us.

"We were doing roughly the same times as everyone else at the beginning of the session, and then we changed to the smaller fairing and went immediately faster. We're quite happy with the way things are going there. Especially today, it was just a huge difference. I thought the wind had died off, but it was the fairing."