Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner reckons he is happy with his results at this weekend's Estoril MotoGP round after a nine-week layoff and said he broke a footpeg in the early laps which hampered his pace.

The Aussie reckons that he is now ready to go back into training and that taking a three-race break was the best decision he could have made as he is now competitive again.

“It is great to be competitive again and to stay that way right to the end of the race. I maybe could have been faster over the opening few laps but I made a little mistake, which caused my foot to slip off the peg," said Stoner.

"It broke the footrest support and it was moving around in all the right-handers, so my foot was slipping off. As the laps went by I was able to alter the footpeg position a little but I wasn’t able to go any faster. Obviously Jorge was too fast for us today and he did a fantastic job but I’m still really happy today for myself and for the team.

"It is brilliant to come back like this and I think it shows that the decision to take a break and tackle a physical problem that was really making it impossible for us, was the right choice. Like I said I’m happy for the team because it has also been a difficult period for them. My relationship with Ducati, built over the past three years, has always been strong and solid.

"Now I’ll try and start training a little before the next race because over the last few months my physical condition has suffered and I need to try and get some muscle back. The target for the next few races is for myself and the team to prepare as well as we can for next season.”