Stoner thriving on pressure, says Suppo

Stoner leads the riders standing by 60 points from Valentino Rossi after his dominant victory at Brno on Sunday, and the Australian is now clear favourite to take the crown.

Suppo believes there is no danger of Stoner crumbling under the pressure of the task ahead of him, having got better with each passing race this season.

"Race by race he gets stronger and stronger," Suppo told autosport.com. "Instead of feeling the pressure, he is getting more confident. That is very good.

"One of the things that no one knew after his first wins was whether he would start feeling the pressure. But instead of feeling the pressure, he just got stronger. That is another good point of Casey's."

Although the Ducati/Bridgestone package has played a key part in allowing Stoner to build up such a comfortable lead in the championship, Suppo thinks that his team should not take all the credit.

"In this world, the riders make a difference," he said. "If you look at the Brno race, then you can see that Casey and John (Hopkins) were stronger than the others."

Suppo does admit, however, that even the most talented riders are not able to overcome weaknesses in their machinery.

"The rider is the man who makes the difference, but everyone together has to be the best. Look at Valentino. He is probably the strongest rider in the world, but without the package he cannot win."

Ducati are due to try out new electronics and new fairing solutions in testing at Brno today and tomorrow.

"Casey has asked for a new fairing in case of wind," said Suppo. "He is happy with the current one if there is no wind, but if there is wind he loses the feeling with the front end."