Stoner expects another difficult race

The Australian has lacked pace all weekend, and also had a troubled time in the preceding round at Jerez.

He admitted that Ducati were running out of ideas for how to get out of their current slump.

"We've done as much as we can with this bike, and at the moment we're just really struggling to find a solution again," Stoner told Italia1 television.

He said his Estoril problems had come as a disappointment as Ducati believed they had made progress in post-race testing a fortnight ago.

"We thought we had a little more confidence after the test after the Jerez race and we were expecting better results here, but we've found similar problems and similar difficulties," Stoner said. "We're really struggling to find a set-up."

The champion said his only hope now was for Ducati to make a breakthrough in the warm-up.

"We just need to look in the warm-up tomorrow to find a better solution," said Stoner. "Maybe then we can do the rest on the track."