'No worries' - Stoner Shrugs Off Another Fall

After crashing out of the lead at Qatar, Casey Stoner rebounded to the top of the timesheets in Friday practice at Jerez - but then fell again.

Despite the accident, a lowside with just two minutes to go, the Ducati rider remained fastest - by 0.144sec from Fiat Yamaha's home star Jorge Lorenzo - and claims the similarity between the two accidents has helped with determining set-up direction.

"The crash at the end was a similar situation to Qatar - I went into the corner with less pressure on the front and it closed,” he explained. “It's never nice to crash but at least it gives us a better understanding of what happened in Qatar and which direction we need to take with the set-up over the rest of the weekend.

“Other than that I am really happy - I think this is the first time I've been fastest in any MotoGP session at Jerez. We've started out strongly, we have no worries and I'm looking forward to tomorrow,” concluded the Australian.

Stoner's team-mate Nicky Hayden was a strong third, while reigning world champion Valentino Rossi - who took victory ahead of Lorenzo in Qatar - was fifth fastest.