Stoner says he could have gone faster

The Ducati rider's pole lap of 1m55.286s was enough for him to beat the Yamaha of defending world champion Valentino Rossi by almost half a second.

But the Australian, who set his best time on the softer of the two control Bridgestone tyre compounds on offer, was still adamant that a quicker lap could have come his way, had the rubber been up to it.

"I wasn't really happy with any of the lap times," the 2007 world champion told BBC television. "The first time I went out and did the same lap time twice.

"The tyres are almost like qualifying tyres at the moment on this dusty track, they're only lasting a maximum of two laps. The second lap time I wasn't happy with either and felt I could've gone faster."

Stoner said that Sunday's warm-up would be crucial in honing a good race set-up, due in no small part to the reduction in practice sessions from three to two for this season.

"Like everyone, we're still trying to find the best setting possible for the harder tyres because the track destroys them very quickly," he told Italia1 TV. "We have a reasonably good set-up for the race, but it's not perfect. At least we've got warm-up to work on that."