Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner is struggling at Sepang with his injured wrist which is making it difficult for the former MotoGP World Champion to brake and turn his Desmosedici left.

The Aussie reckons he is still in a lot of pain and hoped that he would be in much better shape than he actually is following an operation three months ago to fix the broken scaphoid in his left-hand.

Despite the difficulty, Stoner managed to top the timesheets for a long period during the first day's testing at Sepang, only giving best to Loris Capirossi at the very end.

"This morning was really difficult, I really didn’t feel comfortable on the bike. My wrist is still in a lot of pain and I honestly hoped it would be in better shape than this after three months since the operation," said Stoner.

"Even though the lap times were good from the start the wrist was still giving me a lot of problems – it is weak and painful under braking, especially in the first left-hand turn. I can’t do more than four or five laps at a time and there’s nothing I can do about that at the moment, other than hope that it improves over time.

"Sepang is a physically demanding circuit and probably not the best place to be riding for the first time after three months out. I preferred not to ride too much and tire myself out and hopefully it will already be a bit better tomorrow. Freddy, our physiotherapist, has a bit of work to do tonight!"