Stoner 'up for a fight' in title race

The Ducati Marlboro rider endured mixed fortunes in the early part of the season but modifications to his engine have helped lift his form - and put him back into contention for the championship.

And clearly fired up by the performance boost he has had, Stoner sees no reason why his GP8 machine cannot be competitive at all tracks from now on.

"I am hopeful the bike will work everywhere for the rest of the season," said Stoner at the Sachsenring ahead of this weekend's German Grand Prix. "It's worked on three different types of circuit, so it should work at every track for the rest of the season.

"We are willing to work hard for this year. We have closed the gap in the championship a long way now so we are really up for the fight for the remainder of the season."

Although Stoner had a difficult time at the Sachsenring last year as he struggled with tyre wear, he is confident that he and the team have learned from their errors.

"It will be good if we can keep up these sort of results, but it is going to be very hard," said Stoner. "We have had a couple of good weekends so we have got to keep working harder than anybody else to make sure we maintain this form.

"Last year here I was quickest in every session apart from the race, and in the race itself we just had an unfortunate problem with the tyre. We would have been better going for a softer selection, we just went a bit too hard and I wasn't the only one. We were able to forgive for that because everything else worked out so well.

"This year everyone has been working so hard to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen again and that´s why I think we can be competitive here."