Australia MotoGP: Casey Stoner targets home hat-trick

Casey Stoner is confident he can claim a third successive victory on home soil at Phillip Island this weekend.

All eyes will be on the 23-year-old in only his second race since his comeback from recent fatigue issues that saw him take a three-race sabbatical.

Stoner returned to action in brilliant fashion at the Estoril GP in Portugal earlier this month when he claimed second on board his factory Ducati GP9 behind a dominant Jorge Lorenzo.

The 2007 world champion, who has triumphed in front of his home crowd for the last two years, said: “I’m looking forward to Phillip Island.

“In Portugal I was able to get to the end of the race weekend without problems, just the predictable tiredness after a full MotoGP race, following two months of inactivity.

“So maybe I’ll be a bit more ready for Phillip Island now. Besides that the temperature down there is a bit colder than other races we go to and that suits better my physical conditions at the moment.

“The track is awesome – it’s fast, flowing and there isn’t really a section that the riders don’t enjoy. Normally races are fantastic there.

“I’ve had a dream run over the last couple of years but this one is going to be a little different so we have just to wait and see what we can do.”