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Casey Stoner - Source: Reuters
Former world champion Casey Stoner has slammed the state of the Phillip Island track, the venue for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.
Stoner, who finished second quickest in a one-hour MotoGP practice session on Friday, was stunned at the slippery circuit, almost certainly a legacy of last month's V8 Supercar endurance race.
"The track's pretty greasy today," Stoner said.
"It's very, very unpredictable, very, very slick so I don't know what they've been running round here - trucks or something.
"It's definitely in the worst condition I've ever seen it."
While the weather was mild and sunny and the track dry, riders had trouble dealing with the mount of rubber left on the surface following the car enduro.
And Stoner's problems were compounded by problems with grip on his Ducati as he came in second behind world champion and series leader Valentino Rossi on a Yamaha.
"It could have gone much better, I have a pretty good feeling with this circuit in that I have ridden here a lot of times," he said.
"But we're struggling a little bit with rear grip, it's a small problem with our bike that we have to try and fix.
"The bike's turning really well, better than it ever really has at this circuit but unfortunately we just need to improve that rear a little bit more to get us in a better position for the exit (from corners) because we just don't seem to have that traction or transfer."
The 2007 world champion, who was second two weeks ago in Portugal after returning from a 10-week layoff due to fatigue, said he had to re-acquaint himself with the blinding speed of Phillip Island.
"It's just a little bit difficult at this circuit because Portugal is quite slow and this circuit is very fast so it's opened my eyes up again."
Stoner took his Ducati around the circuit in a best lap of 1 minute 31.167 seconds, one hundredth of a second slower than Rossi.
As for his health, he is better but not at full fitness.
"I haven't got the issue that I had during the season but fitness-wise I'm no-where need where I should be and where I have been the past two years.
"I'm not quite as tired as what I was in Portugal so it's just going to continue to get better."
Third fastest was the Honda of Spaniard Dani Pedrosa while Queenslander Chris Vermeulen again struggled at 15th on his Suzuki.
Stoner is confident he can be a frontrunner this weekend but the world is strictly a duel between Yamaha teammates Rossi and Lorenzo.
The Italian is just 18 points ahead of Lorenzo with three races remaining.
