Pedrosa focused on winning more races, not thinking of title

The Spaniard enters Sepang on the back of emphatic wins at Aragon and Motegi, which themselves followed wins in the US and the Czech Republic. Only a first-lap exit at Misano has prevented him from winning every race since August.

Despite that, Pedrosa's title fate is still not in his own hands, with Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo still holding a 28-point lead - meaning he can guarantee the title simply by finishing third in the last three races regardless of what Pedrosa manages.

The Honda man insists ignoring such implications, and simply pushing as hard as possible, gives him the best chance of continuing his recent run.

"I'm really enjoying racing at the moment and I want to continue like this, pushing the maximum from our side without thinking about the others," Pedrosa said.

"It's two seasons since I raced in Sepang and I'm looking forward to it now.

"It's a track where you have a little bit of everything - it's hard to ride, it's hot, there are fast and slow corners, hard braking, long straights... and everybody has references from the tests.

"Nevertheless, we need to wait to see on Friday what the temperature and track conditions are like to understand how the tyres will work because it's normally very slippery."

Team-mate Casey Stoner, meanwhile, continues to be hindered by his ankle injury, but predicted that the smoother nature of Sepang could prove more favourable than Suzuka.

"My ankle isn't feeling very good after the race in Japan so I'll be resting it as much as possible this week before going on track on Friday," Stoner explained.

"It's going to be a hot weekend and it's a physically demanding circuit, [but] the track is a little smoother and more flowing so hopefully I won't have so many issues as I had in Japan."

Stoner added that revisiting the circuit where Marco Simoncelli lost his life last year would be difficult, saying: "This weekend marks the anniversary of Marco's death so I'm sure it will be a strange feeling when we all get on track."