Cautious Stoner on the brink

Australia's Casey Stoner insists his hopes of wrapping up the MotoGP title on home soil are "very slim" despite needing to outscore nearest rival Jorge Lorenzo by just 10 points come Sunday.

The Repsol Honda rider has been the stand-out performer of the 2011 season, winning eight times in 15 races so far and finishing outside the podium places just once.

Defending champion Lorenzo has gamely held onto the shirt-tails of the Australian with three wins and six second places, but it appears to be only a matter of time before Stoner adds another MotoGP crown to the one he won with Ducati in 2007.

Stoner goes into this weekend's race at Phillip Island eyeing a fifth consecutive win in his homeland, but after losing out to team-mate Dani Pedrosa in Japan last time out, admits he is not taking anything for granted.

"My chances of the championship this weekend I think are very slim, almost none," Stoner told a press conference today.

"For Jorge to finish fourth or worse, and then I have to try and win the race...

"For me, the most important thing is to actually win the race. It's a race I want to win.

"I wanted to win last weekend in Japan as well but wasn't able to, so I'll try to bounce back here."

The 25-year-old's four wins in Australia all came with former team Ducati, and Stoner is eager to kick off a period of similar dominance with Honda this weekend.

"It's a grand prix I always look forward to coming back to," he continued.

"It'll be our first time here on the Honda and we'll see how we do. The last four years we've been very successful.

"I think the bike can be working really well around here so hopefully we can put the package together and everything can go well."

Nearest challenger Lorenzo, meanwhile, has vowed to do all he can to prevent Stoner wresting the title from his grasp, but concedes only a string of perfect results in Australia, and at the final two rounds in Malaysia and Valencia, will give him hope.

"Of course we will fight to the end to try and avoid Casey taking the title for as long as possible," the Spaniard said.

"It means we have to fight for the win every weekend which will be tough, this year has been tougher than ever, but we'll try."