Stoner rues early delays

The Qatar GP winner's Ducati lacked pace in the opening stages and fell to ninth before Stoner mounted a mid-race charge that saw him lapping as fast as the victorious Valentino Rossi on the way back to fifth position.

"It wouldn't have been too tough if we'd got away with them in the beginning," Stoner told the official MotoGP website.

"We just didn't seem to have it there at the beginning of the race and I got shuffled back by a few dodgy passing manoeuvres.

"Once we got our rhythm and finally got past Marco (Melandri) and Carlos (Checa), then we were free to put in some good lap times and move further forward."

Although Stoner did not specify which riders he blamed for his early delays, he suggested that some of his Spanish rivals might have been too fired up at their home race.

"Nobody has to do it, but racing on a track like this in front of their home fans, for some reason everyone pushes a bit harder on this circuit," he said.

"I don't think we'll find this so much at some of the other tracks, but this is the way it always is here and we just have to watch out for it."

Stoner remains second in the championship standings, nine points behind new leader Rossi.