Ducati boss lauds Stoner's victory

Suppo believes the trio are now a class apart from the rest of the field, and that Stoner was riding as well as five-time champion Rossi.

"I think at the moment, Casey, Vale and Dani are a little bit better than anybody else out there," Suppo told autosport.com.

"It's pretty difficult to say who is the stronger guy. Of course Valentino has won so much in the past that at the moment he remains the number one.

"But I think Casey deserves all the respect in the world, because it's not the bike, it's not the tyres - the man today won the race."

Stoner had struggled for pace on Friday before making a breakthrough in final practice.

"After the warm-up and the long run yesterday we were confident for sure to do a good race," said Suppo.

"But yesterday morning it was 30 degrees on the tarmac and today it was 50. So of course we always have some doubts.

"Bridgestone was confident the tyre would last the whole race but it's always difficult to be sure. I think Bridgestone has done an incredible job, because we have to remember that two years ago here we were struggling a lot.

"But I repeat, today was a rider's win, for sure."

Ducati and Stoner had struggled in last weekend's Italian GP, falling from pole to fourth in the race.

Suppo believes the lack of dry practice time proved critical for the relatively inexperienced Stoner at Mugello, but reckons that his Barcelona performance proves he would have been more competitive had the Italian event remained dry throughout.

"Casey is 21 years old. In Mugello we lost two hours of practice because of the rain. For him it's more difficult to start like that because it's his first season with us and only his second season on a MotoGP bike," Suppo said.

"It can happen. On Friday here he was struggling a lot in T4. Together with the team, he was able to set the bike up better and in Saturday morning practice he was very fast.

"So probably in Mugello with more time it would have been possible to do better."

Stoner now leads the championship by 14 points from Rossi and 42 from Pedrosa, and Suppo believes Ducati will be satisfied whatever the outcome of the title fight.

"It is already a dream to be able to fight seriously for this championship with such a young boy and in his first season with us," he said.