The bike wanted to throw me off - Stoner
Casey Stoner was not happy with his Honda in Thursday's practices for the Dutch TT at Assen, saying he had absolutely no feel from the rear.
Although he has won two MotoGPs this season, Stoner has found himself on the back foot in recent races, unable to match the pace set by Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo.
As a result the reigning World Champion is trailing the Spaniard by 25 points - the equivalent of a race victory - in the riders' standings.
Stoner's misfortunes continued on Thursday in Holland with the Repsol Honda rider finishing down in 10th place in second practice, 0.438s behind Yamaha's Ben Spies.
"In FP2 we couldn't get any feeling from the rear and to be honest I felt a little nervous on the bike because from the first two exits, the bike just wanted to throw me off," said the 26-year-old.
"Every time I touched the throttle the rear wanted to come around on me and I lost the front quite a few times, too many for my liking.
"Everything we're doing, trying to reduce the chatter is just making the bike difficult to ride.
"We're going to have to rethink things again and come out fresh. I'm not too worried about finding the pace, it was just a little bit disappointing."
One man who was happy with his day's work was Cal Crutchlow.
Riding with a broken ankle the Yamaha Tech 3 rider was second quickest, just 0.006s adrift of Spies' P1 time.
"I am happy to be second quickest considering my physical condition is certainly still not the best after the crash at Silverstone," Crutchlow said.
"In the morning was a bit of a shock to be honest because although I have been able to do a bit of cycling at home on the Isle of Man as part of the recovery, it definitely wasn't easy.
"There was quite a bit of pain with the ankle in the morning and it took me longer than normal to get into a rhythm.
"But overall I am really pleased to be second because I am still quite sore.
"I am sure it is going to get better the more time I spend on the bike but I had arm pump this morning too because I was compensating for the ankle. But in the afternoon it wasn't an issue at all."
