Casey Stoner will start the defence of the
MotoGP World Championship from fourth on the grid in Sunday's season-opening Qatar Grand Prix night race, after Yamaha and Michelin swept the top three positions in qualifying.
However, despite lapping 0.8ses slower than pole sitter
Jorge Lorenzo, the Ducati Marlboro star remains a firm favourite for the race, when the performance of his
Bridgestone tyres should be much stronger.
Stoner confirmed he should be 'really competitive' on Sunday - when he could face his first premier-class battle with rookies Lorenzo and second-on-the-grid
James Toseland.
"To be honest I expected to be on the second row so I'm not too disappointed with the result, although I reckon that if I had another qualifying tyre like the one I set my fast lap on I could have comfortably been on the front," began Casey. "Anyway, sometimes there are certain things you can't plan for and the important thing is that we're in a good position for the race.
"We made one big change to the bike for third free practice and it was really positive but in tonight's qualifying session we tried a few things that didn't have the effect we'd hoped for, so we'll go back to what we know works and I think that with a few more small changes we can be really competitive.
"There a lot of people with good race times, especially Lorenzo, so it will be interesting to see where everybody is in the warm-up. I know Jorge well from my 125 and 250 days so I'm not surprised that he and Andrea [Dovizioso] are fast but I must admit I didn't expect James Toseland to be so strong and I take my hat off to him," said Stoner.
"If it comes down to a battle between us it won't be anything different to any other race - everybody on the grid is a strong rival and they all have to be beaten."
Meanwhile, new team-mate
Marco Melandri will start his first grand prix for Ducati back in 16th after another horrible session.
