The 22-year-old Ducati Marlboro star began last season's day time Losail event without a single premier-class win under his belt, but 22 laps later and the young Australian was standing on the top step of the podium - on his first ever Desmosedici ride - between shell-shocked rivals
Valentino Rossi and
Dani Pedrosa.
Stoner and Ducati remained unstoppable for most of last season, and the new #1 continued that superb form during winter testing - despite a shoulder injury at the end of 2007. Nevertheless, most expect Stoner to face a much stiffer challenge in 2008.
Leading the charge will once again be seven times world champion Rossi, who will face Stoner with the same brand of tyres this season after a switch to
Bridgestone rubber on his Fiat Yamaha. After two consecutive title defeats, 2008 could be make-or-break for the Rossi/Yamaha partnership, which began with such success in 2004.
Rossi was pushed back to third in the 2007 standings after a technical failure in the Valencia season finale, but Dani Pedrosa - who took the position from him - heads to Qatar vastly under-prepared after fracturing his hand in the very first test of 2008.
Much of the Repsol Honda team winter testing has thus been left to 2006 world champion
Nicky Hayden, who has shown blistering pace on qualifying tyres, despite having to develop
two different machine specifications.
The first 'full' version, consisting of the '08 chassis and '08 pneumatic-valve engine, won’t be ready for the opening rounds, leaving Hayden and Pedrosa to run the new 2008 chassis with last year's spring-valve engine this weekend.
Repsol Honda is the only team to field the same riders as last season, with
John Hopkins and
Marco Melandri the leading riders to switch machinery for 2008.
