Casey Stoner is now at second place in standing with 115 points, 25 points behind the leading Jorge Lorenzo, although they are on the same level with 42 wins. How will Stoner fare at Saturday's Assen MotoGP when Lorenzo is poised to complete a serial victory after France, Catalunya and Silverstone?

Stoner hopes for better luck

Stoner has spoken of issues with his Honda, acknowledging that they have to practice hard to get a win this weekend.

"You spend a lot of the time on the edge of the tyre in Assen and unfortunately on our bike at the moment this is a weak point," Stoner said. He also expressed optimism that he would get luckier this time around with no more injuries.

"We've had some great results in Assen, but also some pretty bad ones, so hopefully we can go there this weekend, be competitive and avoid any injury like last year when I hurt my neck, which followed us for the season and still causes me problems now," Stoner said.

"That neck injury remained with me for the rest of last season and I'm still suffering from it," he added.

The Australian champ was at Assen a year ago, but he failed to secure a win against American Ben Spies.

Stoner's farewell

Lorenzo, of Yamaha Factory Racing finished with the fastest time, beating the Repsol Honda Team pair of Dani Pedrosa and Stoner, on Thursday morning's practice. This does not bode well for Stoner's farewell to Assen.

Stoner had announced that he will retire from Grand Prix racing at the end of the 2012 season. He won the 2007 MotoGP with Ducati and the 2011 season with Honda.

"After a long time thinking, a lot of time talking with my family and my wife, this has been coming for a couple of years now but at the end of this 2012 season I will be not racing in the 2013 Championship. I will be finishing my career at the end of this season in MotoGP, and go forward in different things in my life," Stoner said in a press conference.