Indy MotoGP: Second row frustrates Casey Stoner

Factory Ducati rider Casey Stoner vented his frustration on the condition of the Indianapolis track after he equalled his worst qualifying result of the season.

The Australian will start the race from sixth on the grid after he could only log a best time of 1.40.664.

That left the 24-year-old over 0.5s behind the impressive Ben Spies in pole position and Stoner said: “It is definitely not where I expected to be. We thought the settings we had in the morning weren’t too bad.

“But as the qualifying session went on we just started having more and more issues with the front end wanting to close all the time and especially in the last sector.

“So we’ve sort of gone in the wrong direction a little bit and we’ll just have to correct that for the race. But it’s a little bit disappointing.”

Stoner crashed out during the second free practice session at the notoriously bumpy turn six that also caught out Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Spies and reigning world champion Valentino Rossi.

It was evident from TV replays that Stoner had no chance to keep control of his Ducati GP10 machine once he lost the front on a series of huge bumps.

He’d already been critical of the track surface after Friday’s opening practice session and urged Indianapolis management to resurface 70 per cent of the track ahead of the 2011 race.

And he added: “You can see by the amount of crashes this track is atrocious. I wasn’t here last year, so I’ve had a two-year break to really understand how much it’s deteriorated and personally it’s a huge difference.

“It looks like somebody has gone out there and done a bit of concrete work and a bit of tarmac work themselves. It doesn’t look like a professional track in the slightest bit.

“It’s definitely not up the standard of what Indianapolis’s name should hold.  Like I said, 70 per cent of this track needs to be resurfaced.

“It really needs to be ripped up, smoothed out again and resurfaced. I’m sure a lot of streets would be probably smoother than this one, so not nice for a race track.”

Stoner wasn’t alone in condemning the track surface with Rossi also expressing concerns that the bumpy surface was like riding on a public road in places.