MotoGP news

Stoner ready to defend his championship title

Defending world champion Casey Stoner has said he is confident looking ahead of the upcoming 2008 MotoGP world championship season. The Australian claimed his first championship win in 2007 and is looking forward to fight for the championship title again with his Ducati GP8.

"I'm happy that the races are starting up again and I'm satisfied with the job myself and the team have been able to do in the preseason tests," Stoner said looking ahead of the upcoming Qatar Grand Prix. "The Ducati engineers have made a few small changes to the bike over the winter that have produced a notable general improvement. The GP8 has better acceleration in low revs and the set-up changes we made at Phillip Island have improved its performance on the exit of corners.

"The Bridgestone tyres have worked well at all of the tracks we've tested at, including the night test in Qatar, so from that perspective I'm also really happy. It is going to be fun to race at night but for me it won't be a completely new experience because I already did a couple of speedway and dirt-track races at night when I was a junior back in Australia. It will be different but I don't think it changes the job for the rider, especially because we've already had two days of tests last week to get used to the track conditions and the lights.

"Temperature will be an important factor, though, especially as far as the tyres are concerned because at 11 o'clock when we start qualifying and the race it is really cold. We'll have to wait and see if the conditions are the same as they were for the test."

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• 27 Jun.
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• 26 Jun.
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• 24 Jun.
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• 23 Jun.
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• 22 Jun.
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• 21 Jun.
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• 20 Jun.
  • Positive practice for Repsol Honda
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