Casey Stoner says he was as surprised as anyone when he lost the front of his Desmosedici at high-speed during Friday's second free practice session at
Jerez.
"We really don't know what happened with the crash. There was no reason for it," he said. "The front's been a little bit nervous all day but not terrible and I just tipped it into the corner, it started to go and there was no way I could save it."
Prior to his fall, the
MotoGP world champion had set the second fastest lap time during morning practice - but claims he never really felt comfortable and he had slipped down to sixth by the end of the second session.
"We knew before we started that this isn't the best circuit for us and we struggled from the first session this morning to find the ideal setting," said the Qatar race winner, who finished fifth at Jerez last year.
"During the first practice we were struggling a lot getting the bike to enter the corner under heavy braking, which we finally fixed this afternoon, but then we started to get a lot more problems in the rear - it was pumping and moving around a lot.
"We went forwards in one area and backwards in another so we need to sort both things out and come up with a new gameplan tomorrow. We'll concentrate on the front setting first because that was giving us the most problems and then we'll try to fix the rear after that," added Stoner, who was the only rider to lap slower during the afternoon.
But Ducati Marlboro team-mate
Marco Melandri was once again in greater trouble and remains a long way from finding an ideal set-up. The #33 finished Friday at Jerez just 15th fastest.
"It hasn't been an easy day because the settings from the race in Qatar, which I'd had a really good feeling with, haven't worked here," he explained. "We tried to make only a few modifications to find some grip and improve the bike under braking but we're still not managing it. I know this isn't the best circuit for our bike but today I was still hoping to do a lot better. All we can do is keep working hard and hope that the weather stays good for tomorrow."
