Stoner happy to prove Ducati's pace

Stoner's victory in Qatar was put down to the speed of the Ducati down the main straight, but the world championship leader was happy to be fourth fastest in practice at Jerez.

The Australian was three tenths of a second adrift of Carlos Checa's Honda by the end of the session, and he was the first of the non-Spanish riders by the end of the day.

"Everybody is saying how fast the Ducati is and how that's the only reason we were up front at the last race," he said.

"But here we're still sticking it in there against the hometown boys, even though there's no big straight, so the Ducati is proving that it's a good package."

Despite his solid first day, Stoner feels that there is still work to do with the handling of the bike.

"We shouldn't expect any less than what we've done today," he said. "There's a few things we need to improve.

"We need to find a little more rear grip and we need to improve the turning a little bit through the entry and the middle of the corners."

Loris Capirossi had a less satisfying day on his return to the circuit where he won last year, and the Italian echoed his teammate's comments regarding the handling of their bikes after he finished the session in 11th place.

"We were trying to find more traction but in the end that meant I didn't have enough feeling in the front," he said.

"I can honestly say I'm happy with the direction we took this afternoon, but we need to make another step forward."