Friday, 11th April 2008

MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner arrived at Estoril determined to prove that his tough Jerez race was simply a momentary blip, and made a perfect start to the Portuguese Grand Prix weekend by being fastest in the damp morning session.

But the Ducati Marlboro star fell on his very first lap of the dry afternoon hour and never looked completely comfortable, eventually setting the seventh fastest lap time.

"These are completely different problems to the ones we had in Jerez," revealed Casey. "So far I'm still having absolutely no feeling with the front end and I can't explain why we crashed on an out lap, going slow, with the bike upright. I was literally cruising, just picking the bike up on the way out of the corner and the front decided to give up on me.

"We've had such good feeling with the front in the past and lately it's gone - there aren't even any close saves, the grip is either there or it's not. I had these problems throughout the session today - so many times I had the front end on my knee and had to pick it up, so something is clearly not right.


"For one reason or another the bike doesn't feel the same as it has done in the past and we just need to try and figure it out, but I'm sure with a few set-up changes we can get there. It wasn't our best day but we're still not far off the pace," concluded the Australian, who was 0.695secs behind Jerez winner Dani Pedrosa.

Team-mate Marco Melandri experimented with a new set-up strategy but was unable to report any major improvements.

"We spent all day working down a particular route that led to nowhere and we lost a lot of time," admitted the Italian. "The conditions have been mixed, with damp and dry moments, but it was like riding in the wet. It's not easy but it is the same for everybody. At the moment we're not on it, I can't ride as I want to. Tomorrow we'll go backwards a little with the set-up and hope that the situation improves."