Ducati hope new fork hands Stoner final two tenths

Casey Stoner will start this weekend's Indianapolis Grand Prix with a new front fork, which Ducati hope can hand the Australian the two tenths a lap that separates him from victory.

Although on the podium for the last five rounds - comprising four thirds and one second place - Stoner hasn't won since Malaysia last year.

There have been eleven races since then and world champion Valentino Rossi, traditionally the biggest obstacle between any other rider and a MotoGP victory, has missed four of them.

Stoner feels he is close to standing on the top step, but has spoken of hitting a performance wall with his GP10, which prevents him raising his pace a little more to match the likes of Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.

The #27 - who battled front end problems with his Ducati at the start of the year, prompting him to switch back to last year's Ohlins fork - will now hope that the revised design works as well as it had in the Brno post-race test.

"We'll start out on Friday with the new front fork because our first impressions of it were good although we still have to decide whether we'll use it for the race," said Stoner. "We'll also try some settings on the rear that we managed to get a few laps on at Brno but that also need checking out."

"We go to Indy with some things to try that we hope can give Casey those two tenths he's missing," confirmed team manager Vittoriano Guareschi. "Over the past few months he's been happy with the engine and the handling of the GP10 but never really able to get a good feeling for the front.

"The new fork we tried in the Czech Republic seems to have given him a little confidence so we'll fit it to one of his two bikes on Friday afternoon. If his feeling is as good as it was at Brno we'll use it in the race. Also Nicky [Hayden], of course, can use it if he wants to."

Stoner finished fourth in the inaugural, storm shortened, 2008 Indianapolis Grand Prix, but missed last year's event due to sickness.