Casey Stoner will enter this weekend’s Japanese round of the MotoGP World Championship hoping to set up a world championship win at Phillip Island’s following round.

The 2007 MotoGP World Champion has been sensational this year, winning eight of 14 races to balloon his points lead to 44 over reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha).

Stoner’s dream season continued in the previous Aragon race which he won handily from the pole. It continued his streak of podium appearances in every race he’s finished.

And if the stars line up Stoner could wrap up the championship in his home grand prix at Phillip Island on his 26th birthday.

“Motegi is quite a different circuit. It’s similar in a way to Le Mans and is very stop-start, a little like a go kart track, but in general it’s nice and more fun than some of the other circuits we visit,” Stoner said. “It has a lot of hard braking, a lot of hard accelerating, it’s pretty tough on the body and physically demanding.

“If you miss your braking points it’s easy to run wide, so it will be important to get the setup on the bike just right. As in Aragon, we will be going out there trying to win and not only looking for valuable championship points.

“We had a fantastic race here last year, probably one of my best in my opinion, and it will be fun to go there on the Honda and see how the bike works around the circuit.”

Stoner won last year’s Japanese Grand Prix after a thrilling battle with Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V). It was only on the 17th of 24 laps that Stoner was able to put a second on Dovi, which he expanded to 3.868s at the finish.

Stoner also finished second at Motegi in 2008 and was on the podium in both the 250cc and 125cc classes.