Australia’s Casey Stoner is disappointed with crashing out of the Portuguese Grand Prix on Sunday, the Ducati Marlboro rider continuing his win or crash form of late in his final races aboard the Desmosedici.

The 2007 world champion lost the front-end at the Parabolica on lap five of 28 on Sunday at Estoril while running in third and closing in on eventual winner Jorge Lorenzo, now focussed on his final race with Ducati at Valencia this weekend.

“There is not much to say today, other than it’s a shame, obviously,” Stoner commented. “I was taking it steady over the first couple of laps getting the tyres up to temperature and then I was able to push a little harder to close the gap to the guys in front of me.

“When I got on the back of Jorge I wasn’t pushing as hard as I had on the previous laps but I ran a little off line and lost the front. I tried to save it but I wasn’t able to and I am really sorry to all the guys in the team because they have done a good job in difficult conditions to find a good set-up.

“We will try and make up for it in Valencia.”

Since the Motorland Aragon race in mid-September, Stoner has had a win or crash strike rate – winning in Spain and again in Japan, crashing in Malaysia, winning in Australia and then crashing at Estoril yesterday.

Next week will see Stoner make his debut as a factory Honda rider at Valencia following this weekend’s season-ending MotoGP round in Spain.