Stoner keeps expectations in check

The Ducati Marlboro rider, who had been on a run of seven consecutive pole positions but crashed in the last three races, was in fact surprised to qualify as high as second after suffering an engine failure in the morning's session.

"We don't expect so much this weekend: we've had not so much track time," Stoner told Italia1 television. "We've had a few problems, and we're just trying to get the confidence back.

"It was close, but we've struggled a little bit today. We broke an engine in this morning's session, and when the track was starting to become a little bit drier you could actually get a bit of a feel for it.

"(Instead) we had to spend the last 20 minutes in the box because we broke the engine. So it's a little bit disappointing."

He added: "Coming into this afternoon's session we were trying to do a lot of things in a short period of time, and we just couldn't get done all we needed before we put the qualifying tyres on. I was struggling with the front to get feeling from it, been having quite a lot of chatter.

"But to end up second I was actually quite impressed, I didn't think I was even going to get on the front two rows. I've been struggling a little bit this weekend and it's nice to come away with second anyway."