Ducati Marlboro Team rider Casey Stoner is on the brink of the 2007 World Championship with his eigth win this season and third in a row. With a decisive victory at Misano - and Rossi's DNF - Stoner is now 85 points clear of Rossi With just five races and 125 points remaining.

Stoner's eighth success of the year was also his second consecutive start-to-finish victory and completes a hat-trick of wins, as well as extending his World Championship lead to 85 points and increasing Ducati's advantage in the constructors' championship and stretching the Ducati Marlboro Team's lead in the teams' championship. The Australian got the holeshot from pole position and after resisting early pressure from runner-up Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins he extended his advantage to 1.8 seconds at half-distance, after setting a new lap record, and to 4.8 seconds at the chequered flag. Capirossi got a brilliant start from the fifth row to complete the first lap in fifth spot, spending most of the 28 laps battling with Marco Melandri.

Casey Stoner
I'm still taking the championship race by race. It was unfortunate what happened to Valentino [Rossi, DNF] and to Dani [Pedrosa, DNF] today, but I was out in front doing my own thing, I had enough pressure myself. It took a lot of concentration to not make any mistakes because it was really hot and hard work today. This was very nice win for me. Yesterday I wasn't so confident, but when we arrived on the grid today we were quite confident with the setting and everything worked well, we got a good start and we were able to get a good advantage. If there was a group up front my plan was to separate the group so there were less riders to battle with, I expected it to be a very difficult race. The team did a great job all weekend, they really pulled through for me. And after a race like this I'd really like to thank my trainer Anthony who I work with every time I have a bit of time off. The second part of the season is when I usually get stronger, so I hope we can be stronger at the next races but we'll see what happens. The more I ride My Ducati the more comfortable I become and the faster I become.

Chris Vermeulen
I am very happy to be on the podium. I said earlier this year that there would be two Rizla Suzukis on there before the end of the year, and I am very pleased to have been proved right. Obviously I'm happy to be in front of John, but congratulations to him and the whole team on this great result. We had no data on the bikes before we came here and Suzuki and Bridgestone have both done a great job to give us such a fantastic package for a new circuit. I got a good start from the third row, which was nice because I was dreading starting back there as it is so difficult to pass around here. I got up to fourth early on, but I still had to pass John and Valentino - two of the hardest guys in the paddock to get around. After I got through them I tried to catch Casey and thought I was doing so, but I think I used up a bit too much of my rear tyre trying to catch him and at the end he pulled away a bit. Once again I would like to pass on my thanks to Tom and all my crew, plus all the guys at Bridgestone for this weekend.

John Hopkins
What can I say, two Rizla Suzukis on the podium so that isn't too bad a day! I got a great start which was crucial and I was lucky to avoid the accident at turn one. I wanted to hang on to Casey early on for as long as I could, the Bridgestone tyres worked really well right from the start and the bike also felt good. I had an incident when I pushed a bit too hard coming in to a fast right and had a big front-end slide. That cost me some time as it spooked me up a bit and because of that my lap-times dropped off. I could hear Chris behind me, he came up the inside and passed me - I knew he had a strong pace and I tried to hang on to him. I hung on for as long as possible until I had a problem with a knee-slider that came loose and I had to take it off and put it back on! That is neither here nor there though, Chris and Casey rode at a hell of a pace and I didn't really have anything for them. I'm happy to get this position for the Team and for Suzuki. It's a great performance today and now we'll be pushing tomorrow to try and make more improvements. Then it's on to Estoril where I have very high hopes!

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