Stoner not feeling pressure for Italy

The Australian believes that, having scored only one podium finish since he won the season opener in Qatar, there's no great weight of expectation on him.

"Well, I'm coming off the back of a podium, a DNF, and a couple of other bad races, so I haven't got a lot of expectation this weekend and there isn't a lot of pressure," Stoner said ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.

"We haven't come from a great result so we've only got forwards to go, we can't go backwards."

But he says he likes riding under pressure to get the best out of himself.

"I prefer a little bit of pressure because it helps you perform and keeps you on top of your game. It keeps you striving to get something more out of your bike."

Despite his and Ducati's poor run of form, Stoner is hoping to be able to stop Valentino Rossi from scoring his seventh consecutive victory on his home circuit.

"Valentino is fast here. I can't really tell you why, it's his home GP and maybe he regards it as more important than some other. He really likes to win here and the track suits his style.

"We had a competitive bike last year but unfortunately we struggled here with one particular area. At the next race we fixed the majority of that problem and were competitive again, so we'll give it 100 per cent this weekend and see how close we can get."