Suppo admits title is within reach

With today's victory at Misano and the retirements of rivals Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa, the Australian is now leading the championship by a massive 85 points, with only 125 points remaining to be won before the end of the season.

"Sure it's closer now," Suppo said.

"Stoner deserves it. Again one weekend with no mistakes, well almost with no mistakes this time, because he made a small mistake on the first day.

"Now he's getting closer and closer."

Stoner can win the title at the next race in Portugal if he manages to outscore Rossi by a further 15 points and is not outscored by Pedrosa by more than three points.

Asked if the title can be won at Estoril in a fortnight's time, Suppo replied: "In theory, yes. That's unbelievable."

As for whether Suppo has preferences on where to win the title, he has no doubts: "Anywhere is OK."

Stoner was also hailed by Claudio Domenicali, CEO of Ducati Corse.

"To have an 85-point lead and not be considered the number one takes a lot of guts," Domenicali told Italia 1 television.

"In my opinion Casey this year is riding fantastically: he's the only one able to take the bike to that level so people must tip their hats off to a boy who came out from nowhere and he's giving some nice riding lessons."

Domenicali, however, pledges to keep working hard and to keep his feet on the ground.

"Obviously we are very happy, but let's not get carried away because we are still the same people that in 2004, when things were going much differently and we were being accused of making plenty of wrong decisions.

"So, just like we felt underestimated then, we won't get carried away now and we'll try to keep our feet on the ground because there are many difficulties.

"Yes, it's a great result but the work goes on and we must go back home on Monday and work some more," concluded Domenicali.