Stoner pleased with Bridgestone form

On his final day of work, Stoner completed a race simulation with the new rubber from the Japanese manufacturer and showed the kind of consistent form that helped him win the title last year.

The Australian Ducati rider ended the test on top of times, lapping nearly a second quicker than Honda's Nicky Hayden after also trying Bridgestone's qualifying tyres.

"We did the race simulation with one of Bridgestone's new tyres and it went really well, even though we had to come in three laps early," said Stoner.

"The track temperature today was actually higher than it was for the race here and you could tell. Even so we managed to lap consistently in low 1.30 and that shows how well they're working in Japan.

"I'm also really happy with the qualifying tyre, which is the same as last year. It is a good thing that bike is not completely different to 2007 because it has allowed is to find an excellent base to start the season from already.

"The new version of the engine has a better delivery, especially at the bottom end, and that has allowed me to set fast times more consistently, as well as increasing tyre life.

"It has been a good test session but now I'm happy to have a couple of weeks to rest and train in the gym. The shoulder feels okay, it is just a little bit weak and sore because I haven't been able to work on it as much as I would have wanted but now we can do that."

Teammate Marco Melandri continued working on adapting to the Ducati, the Italian finishing over 2.5 second behind Stoner.

"This final day has been particularly intense for me and my crew," he said. "We've continued to work on the balance of the bike and then did some tyre tests The front is okay but I'm having some grip issues on the rear.

"At the moment there isn't much difference between using a new tyre and an old one so we've got plenty of room for improvement in this area.

"In the afternoon I did a long run and even though the lap times weren't special we learnt a lot. We know what we need to go forward and what can give us better grip to improve our speed through the corners.

"We're on the right tracks and I'm sure that in the next test at Jerez we'll take another step forward. For now a bit of relaxing will do me good because the last two weeks have been really hard work."