As they travel to Malaysia they are aiming to maintain the momentum all the way to the end of this historic season.
"I'm still trying just as hard to win races now that we've got the title, because every race is as important as the others to me, but being champion does make it different, it makes the racing more enjoyable because I can relax a bit more, explained Stoner.
2006 wasn't Stoner's best result at the humid Malaysian track but he is determined to have a good race this time round. I'm looking forward to Sepang - it's always been a pretty good circuit for me. I won there two years in a row on the 125 and 250 in 2004 and 2005. I think last year was my worst race there, so I'm looking forward to getting back to having a nice, strong event there.
His team-mate
Loris Capirossi is a big fan of Sepang, "These last two races are really important to me and I love to ride Sepang, so I will be working hard to get another good result there. The track really suits me, the Ducati has always gone well there and the Bridgestones work well too, but we will have to wait and see what happens this time because it seems like they have had some problems resurfacing the track.
The one thing that is concerning most people is the resurfacing of the track as Capirossi went on to say, They laid a new surface a couple of months ago but it was too bumpy, so they had to put down another new surface in some areas recently, so everything will be completely new from a tyre point of view. I just hope the surface is okay because the last two years I have had great weekends there - first in 2005, a very close second place last year.
Ducati
MotoGP project director Livio Suppo echoed the sentiments of his riders, We go to Malaysia in very good mood after two unforgettable races and we hope we can maintain our momentum at Sepang, where we've had some great results. Two years ago we scored our first double podium result there and last year Loris fought for victory until the last lap, so in theory it's a good track for us.
