During his stunning race debut for Ducati, Stoner eased past pole sitter
Valentino Rossi then - aided by his powerful Desmosedici - remained wheel perfect to the chequered flag, marking the first of ten 2007 wins.
Irritated by the 'tyres and top speed' comments used by some to explain his success, Stoner has since taken great pleasure from remaining at the front of the field during much of the winter testing - despite a shoulder injury at
Jerez in November - and Ducati
MotoGP project director Livio Suppo believes the young Australian has gone from strength to strength.
"It has been a challenging winter but one that has been full of satisfaction. Casey has proved himself to be the man to beat and the level of confidence he has with the bike and tyres is fantastic," said the Italian. "Compared to this time last year he has improved even more and it's a great pleasure to see that his world championship success has not taken anything away from his desire to win."
Sunday's inaugural Qatar night race could provide the first of what most neutral fans hope will be many head-to-head clashes with Yamaha's five times world champion Valentino Rossi this season, but Casey is approaching the contest in confident mood.
"I'm happy that the races are starting up again and I'm satisfied with the job myself and the team have been able to do in the preseason tests," said Stoner. "The Ducati engineers have made a few small changes to the bike over the winter that have produced a notable general improvement.
"The GP8 has better acceleration in low revs and the set-up changes we made at Phillip Island have improved its performance on the exit of corners. The
Bridgestone tyres have worked well at all of the tracks we've tested at, including the night test in Qatar, so from that perspective I'm also really happy.
