"I think I still could've gone faster at the end but unfortunately the rear end came around on me as I was tipping into the Honda hairpin, it just slid away," said the 21-year-old, whose accident occurred just moments after an identical incident for Chaz Davies. "We're not really sure what happened, I think there must've been something on the circuit, we might go and check it out a bit later."
That minor fall, in the closing minutes of second free practice, was the only downside to an otherwise dominant day for Stoner, in which the Ducati Marlboro star topped both rain-interrupted sessions to finish day one of his home Australian Grand Prix 0.423secs clear of 2008 team-mate
Marco Melandri.
"This afternoon we had more dry laps than this morning, but it started to rain a couple of times, so it was on and off and off on, just frustrating really," admitted Casey. "The wind makes it a little bit of a handful round here, but we were able to be fastest, with three laps from race distance on the tyres, so we are quite happy with the bike setting and the tyres.
"We've still got a harder compound rear to test tomorrow and we've also got a different fairing - to make the bike more stable in windy conditions - which we're going to try. We've tested it a few times, though temperature is an issue, so first we have to make sure that conditions are cold enough and I think they are, so that might give us a bit of an advantage," he revealed.
Team-mate
Loris Capirossi was eighth fastest, just over one second from Stoner.
"It has been a strange day, it seems like we came in and out of the garage a hundred times because it started raining and then the track dried and then it started raining again... and all this makes our work a bit more difficult," said the Italian, winner last time out at Motegi. "But I have to say I'm happy, we are going pretty well.
