Stoner laments effects of wrist recovery

Casey Stoner admits his wrist is continuing to prevent him from working on the set-up of the Ducati GP9, despite the former champion going quickest on the second day of MotoGP pre-season testing at Sepang, Malaysia.

Still reeling from the effects of his wrist surgery towards the end of last year, Stoner was nonetheless on fine form as he swept to the top of the timesheets with the quickest lap of the test so far.

However, after completing just 29 laps over the course of the day, the least of any rider, Stoner has revealed the pain is forcing him to complete just short bursts of laps before he is forced to take a break.

It means that, despite his quick lap times, he is unable to spend enough time on track to establish a good set-up on the latest evolution of the Desmosedici. It is a situation he is frustrated with.

"The wrist is giving me a lot of problems and I can't manage more than two or three laps at a time, so it's difficult to work on set-up because I'm having to break off too often.

Nonetheless, Stoner is remaining positive, adding that the bike has improved through the day, while he is certain he is well on the way to full fitness.

"We've still managed to do some work on improving the feeling on the GP9, with some changes to the rear set-up that have improved the bike in the area we were suffering the most. Now it is much easier to ride.

"I still can't ride how I want though and we really need to string a run of consistent laps together, although I know that if I can get a little closer to 100% fitness that problem will be resolved. Hopefully the wrist will feel a bit better tomorrow so that I can try and do a longer run and confirm the positive feedback we've had from the bike today."