Tyre choice costs Capirossi

The Ducati rider could only qualify seventh on the grid, while Stoner split the Yamahas on the front row.

However, Capirossi is still confident for the race, and he put his difficulties down to a bad choice of qualifying tyre.

"Today we recovered from a situation that could have been very negative," said Capirossi.

"I chose a soft qualifying tyre which wouldn't finish a lap at maximum pace and in fact during my first run with qualifiers I almost lost control at the last corner."

Capirossi came close to falling off the bike at the end of the lap, but he recovered to the pits, and decided to follow Stoner on his second run.

The young Australian was still faster when the bikes were on track together though, but Capirossi was being cautious to avoid a repeat of the tyre problem at the end of the lap.

"I asked Casey, who had a harder tyre, if I could follow him to give me a reference through the first two splits," he said.

"It worked out because I was very fast in the first part of the lap and when the tyre began to go off I slowed down."

The Italian echoed Stoner's comments that the team are in good shape for the race, and he believes that a strong result is still possible.

"I'm very happy," he said. "We have a very good rhythm in race trim, and I think we'll be able to fight for the podium."