Stoner: Ducati are back to their best

The reigning champion - who has not won since the season-opener in Qatar - felt that only his own excess of caution stopped him taking his first pole position of 2008.

"On the first set of qualifying tyres I did okay and was really happy with it and thought we could just drop another half a second off it," Stoner said in the post-qualifying press conference.

"But on my second one I was just too conservative and we lost a minimum of three or four tenths of a second just under braking. So I'm a little bit disappointed with that.

"But this whole weekend's gone a lot better for us. The changes that we've made to the bike have really set everything up.

"The team's worked really hard since China and we're feeling much more confident. We're back to our old selves again."

He was particularly pleased with the times he achieved on race tyres before switching to qualifying Bridgestones for the final runs, and believes he can match front row partners Dani Pedrosa and Colin Edwards in the race.

"Just before we put qualifiers on, on our last two laps on the race tyre we did a good step on the settings, so I feel like I'm up to Dani and Colin's pace for the race tomorrow," Stoner said.

The Australian expects to be part of a five-way fight for victory in tomorrow's race, with the front row trio set to be challenged by the factory Yamaha riders, who have qualified fourth and fifth.

"Dani's been riding really well all weekend - fastest in nearly every session," Stoner told BBC television.

"Colin's been right there on his heels, and I've been trying to keep up with them. It seems to have been us three consistently up front all weekend. We had the package to get pole position, so we know the bike works well, it was just my mistake that meant we didn't get pole.

"Valentino (Rossi) of course is going to throw it in there - he's always done really well at this circuit and always been there or thereabouts - and Jorge Lorenzo has had a couple of crashes but is still running consistent times, so it's going to be an interesting race."