Stoner believes title chance has gone

The Ducati rider, who lies second in the standings, 75 points behind Valentino Rossi, looked as if he had fought his way back into contention with a string of victories in the summer, but three falls in three races (he recovered from a fall in Laguna Seca to finish second) have put paid to his hopes of catching the Italian.

"It was gone a while ago, then we started to bring it back and then it was gone again," said Stoner. "You know we were also just trying to do what we could, not so much for the championship, but the races themselves.

"I think the championship was gone quite a few times. We gave too many points away at the beginning of the season and that's really stung us now.

"With these two crashes, if we hadn't made such a bad start to the season, we would have still been within in reach, but that's the way things have gone this year, and that's the way things seem to be panning out for me.

"We have just got to make sure we come home strong in these last five races very strong and get ready for next year."

Stoner admitted that he had been frustrated by the crashes, two of which occurred while he was leading, but refused to blame the bike or the team for his problems.

"Things definitely haven't gone well but we are not putting the blame on anybody," he said. "I have been riding the best I can. The practice sessions have gone perfectly and I have been learning a lot more.

"But the races just haven't worked out. I felt that I was doing everything right like I have in the past, but these two crashes really caught me out so I am a little bit disappointed with my results, but I am here to learn, I'm young, we'll see how it goes at this race track."

Stoner also revealed that the fractured scaphoid, which may have contributed to his Brno crash was not an aggravated injury, but one that had never actually healed since he sustained it in 2003.

"I never actually re-broke it," he said. "It just never healed in five years. I've been a little bit disappointed with the news of that. I thought it was sorted five years ago, but I kept having quite a lot of pain over the years.

"They just kept telling me it's fine, scaphoids do this, but we have had x-rays and scans and realised that the bone broke itself into a few pieces so we've got to decide what to do in the future with it, but for now we have just got to keep racing and see what we can do."