Casey Stoner has said he is not planning to rest on his
laurels despite having nothing left to ride for in this
weekend's Australian Grand Prix.
The 21-year-old Ducati rider wrapped up the riders' championship
last time out in Japan and still has three races left in a season
that has already yielded eight wins.
But he has vowed not to let his rivals get the better of him at
Phillip Island, a track that will see around 60,000 of his home fans
turn up to cheer him on.
"It's going to be a special feeling going to my home race with the
championship already won, but I will be going out to win, same as
ever, because that's what I enjoy doing," said Stoner.
"It's been an amazing season, I always knew I could do it with
the right team behind me. I'm really looking forward to seeing the
Australian fans, though once I'm on the bike I'll do my job same
as everywhere."
Stoner classes Phillip Island, an outcrop 25 miles from Melbourne
famed as much for its penguins as for its Grand Prix, as his
favourite circuit.
"Phillip Island is my favourite track, it's fast and flowing and it's
one of the few places where you can get a MotoGP bike really
wound out, it's a lot of fun coming off those fast corners," he
added.
"We went well there in testing, we had to work pretty hard to
make the tyres last the race-distance runs but Bridgestone have
done an amazing job this year, so I think we can look forward to
having good tyres for the race."
Ducati project director Livio Suppo has echoed Stoner's
sentiments, especially as the battles for the team's and
constructors' titles are still open.
Ducati lead the constructors' title race by 69 points from Honda,
meaning a ninth place or better from either Stoner, Loris
Capirossi, or either d'Antin Ducati men will seal things.
Team-wise, Suppo's organisation needs to score 30 points, which
could come a win and an 11th place, in order to put themselves
out of reach of Valentino Rossi's Yamaha factory team, and he
thinks doing it at the front of the field is the way to go. full story
on uk.eurosport.yahoo.com - pics from motograndprix.it