Stoner troubled by tyre temperature

In a bizarre string of incidents, all three works Honda team riders - Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso and Hiroshi Aoyama - had heavy falls within two minutes early in today's practice session, with a lack of tyre temperature in left-handers seemingly the cause.

"The slip-off very early in the session this morning wasn't the best way to start," said Stoner, who ultimately qualified third. "We were a bit bruised and sore.

"But in general we just lost a little confidence in the left-hand side of the tyre. We just can't seem to get any heat into it.

"It doesn't really matter what we do with the set-up - we seem to just go round in a circle and not really make any improvements.

"So this afternoon we tried a few different things to get our race pace a little better. We got slowly there, but it's still nowhere near good enough. We'd like to have a little bit more pace for long distance.

"For the longevity of the tyre, we seem to be using it up a little bit too quickly."

Stoner said that given these issues, he was lacking confidence when it came to his pole shot.

"When I went onto the soft tyres again for the qualifying lap, I just wasn't willing to push," he conceded.

"I just didn't have the confidence in the temperature on the left-hand side and I came across the line and got a chequered flag when I was set to start my second fast lap."

But despite his problems, Stoner reckoned poleman Marco Simoncelli was always going to be out of reach.

"It's a little bit disappointing but I don't think I would've been able to get Marco for pole position," said the championship leader.

"The whole weekend he's been very fast and very consistent, so my hat's off to him."