Stoner: There's room for improvement

The Australian factory Ducati rider set a time just 0.073 faster than Honda's Dani Pedrosa on a drying track in the second practice hour, but admitted that much of the first day had been spent chasing setup.

"This morning we struggled to find rear grip on the wet track and we couldn't understand why, so this afternoon it was a case of taking our time to get the setting right and eventually we found a decent feel," said Stoner. "We have a few areas to improve on and one of the things we tried towards the end of this afternoon proved to be a blind alley, so that cost us some time.

"Basically we tried a new tyre but it was spinning up a lot on the rear and forcing me wide on the brakes. We need to make up for that tomorrow and a dry day would certainly help!"

Stoner added that he had not been hampered by his injured wrist after suffering with the damaged scaphoid over the last two races.

"My wrist is feeling pretty good here - much better than it has for the last two races anyway, only in the dry it is a little bit more difficult, in the wet no problems," he said. "I didn't use any bandage I preferred not to because I have not the same movement. If I can I won't use it."

Teammate Marco Melandri had one of his season's more encouraging runs, going eighth fastest as all four Ducatis made it into the top ten.

"We still have a few things to work on but the weekend has started out positively and I think that trend can carry through to the race," said the Italian. "Now we'll see if we have another two sessions in the wet but at least it looks as though it will be dry for Sunday.

"If that's the case we have an idea about tyre choice and even though we have some way to go with the bike I can say I'm happy today."