Motegi MotoGP: Casey Stoner content with front row

Casey Stoner declared himself satisfied after he claimed a tenth front row start of the season ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix at the Twin Ring Motegi.

The 24-year-old steered his factory Ducati GP10 machine to a best time of 1.47.105 to finish just 0.104s behind fastest rider Andrea Dovizioso.

The Aussie was only 0.050s behind reigning world champion Valentino Rossi in second place as he finally found a setting that helped him cope with the stop-and-go nature of the Twin Ring Motegi track.

Stoner had found a new setting he first tried when ending his long winless streak at the Motorland Aragon track in Spain last week needed heavily tweaking.

But when he found a set-up to his liking he was ominously fast again and looking strong to fight for the victory in tomorrow’s 24-lap race.

The 2007 world champion said: “We’ve been trying to improve the bike’s stability all weekend. The Aragon setting just wasn’t going to work. We were just a little bit too high.

“So we kept dropping the bike trying to make it a little more stable on the brakes and we just kept losing more and more grip and the lap times just seemed to keep disappearing. With these heavy braking and acceleration areas we were having a lot of trouble under brakes.

“We put more effort in and we were going slower and slower. So we went back in the opposite direction again and we immediately got the bike to grip a bit better and the lap times just started to tumble.

“The amount of grip we are now generating compared to what we were is a huge difference, so we were able to take big chunks off the times and I’m definitely a lot more comfortable with the bike.”

Stoner said he was confident going into round 14 of the championship but conceded he lacked the consistency of some of his rivals.

But he also believes there’s plenty of room for improvement and added: “I still haven’t seen what consistency I can do and the way the bike felt I still haven’t reached the limit.

“But I think we did a great job in qualifying but the race is a different story so we have to make some changes tomorrow morning if it is going to be dry and hopefully go in the right direction.”