Stoner expected more problems

The French track is mainly a braking and traction circuit, with shorter straights than at previous circuits, and the Ducati was widely expected to have more trouble to show its competitiveness.

But Stoner, winner of three of the first four races of the season, said he did not have many problems to get his bike ready for the weekend.

The Australian finished the day as sixth quickest, one place ahead of championship rival Valentino Rossi.

"We expected this circuit to be a little more difficult but our settings seem pretty good at the moment," said Stoner. "We're doing the best job we can to get the bike to hook up out of the turns and Bridgestone are doing an excellent job as well.

"We already smoothed down the rear suspension because I was having a few pumping problems and we also seem to have solved the braking problems we had this morning. Now we just need to make some little tweaks in the front and get a bit more traction in the rear.

"I went out at the start of this afternoon's session with tyres that had already done six or seven laps and I did race distance no problem. If it's really hot we've got another set of harder tyres, but the tyres we've got for these conditions are doing race distance absolutely no dramas, so we're looking pretty safe again."

Teammate Loris Capirossi was 11th fastest, but the Italian reckoned he could have gone quicker if the session hadn't been hit by rain.

"We solved the few little problems we had this morning and started this afternoon with a better set-up," said Capirossi. "We then made a few more minor adjustments during the second session and my last run was quite fast.

"Unfortunately I was only able to do a couple of laps before it started raining, but we know that we have found the right direction and that's what matters for the rest of the weekend. We tried just one rear tyre today and we have two more to test, so I think it's possible we can also improve that part of the bike.

"Above all we need to improve our settings for the last part of the track because I'm still slow in the final split. Anyway, I feel good and confident enough for the next two days."