Stoner: 'Happy now?'

Casey Stoner has had a sarcastic crack at those who said he crashed too much last year in his MotoGP debut season.

The works Ducati star had his first off on the Italian bike at Qatar’s major IRTA test last week, and he said: “Everyone says I crash too much so just to make them happy I had my first crash on a Ducati. We are pretty sure it was a tyre problem. It also happened earlier on because I’d had a problem with the same tyre and we went out to see if it was OK later in the day.

“I landed on the inside of the track. On the exit the rear just came right round on me. I didn’t break a thing on the bike and put myself on the fake grass on the inside before I even touched the tarmac.”