Stoner frustrated after practice

Last year's world champion was third in both of the sessions today, but was unable to get close to the pace of Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards as they topped one each.

"It has been a frustrating day to be honest because we don't seem to have a tyre that works at this track and suits our bike," said Stoner.

"The weather didn't help because this afternoon it was constantly spitting and we couldn't really push hard enough to get any decent information back. Hopefully, with the data we have from a couple of laps we can improve the bike a little bit for tomorrow.

"The Desmosedici puts less pressure on the rear than other bikes, so we tend to run softer rear tyres, but this circuit requires a hard compound and it seems the tyre that works best here is giving us a bit too much rebound. The bike is moving around a lot and I'm getting a lot of vibration.

"The limited track time this afternoon leaves us with a lot of work to do tomorrow, so hopefully the weather stays dry. We had similar issues at Phillip Island and we managed to get on top of them, so I think by Sunday we can have a good solution."