Stoner fourth on Qatar grid

From Marlboro Ducati

DOHA, QATAR -- Casey Stoner starts his defence of the MotoGP World Championship from fourth on the grid in the Grand Prix of Qatar following Saturday's qualifying session, having been quickest in each of the three free practices.

The third of those was when the Australian did his best work, the adjustments made since Friday with the race setting on the GP8 having the desired effect and giving him confidence for Sunday's race.

His teammate Marco Melandri was nowhere near as satisfied after only managing the 16th fastest time on qualifying tires.

"To be honest I expected to be on the second row so I'm not too disappointed with the result, although I reckon that if I had another qualifying tire like the one I set my fast lap on I could have comfortably been on the front," said Stoner, whose fastest lap was a 1:54.733. "Anyway, sometimes there are certain things you can't plan for and the important thing is that we're in a good position for the race.

"We made one big change to the bike for third free practice and it was really positive but in tonight's qualifying session we tried a few things that didn't have the effect we'd hoped for, so we'll go back to what we know works and I think that with a few more small changes we can be really competitive."