Valentino Rossi (FIAT Yamaha) and Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro), the closest rivals this 2007 season of FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix (MotoGP), aim to take the MotoGP crown away from current champ Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda).

With Rossi’s recent win in Portugal, the Italian rider is confident that he could win the other upcoming MotoGP races starting in Montegi circuit for the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix. Rossi commented: "Portugal was a great, great race and it was fantastic to win again after so long.  Now we go straight to Motegi and the motivation and confidence within the team is very high. We know that our rivals are always very strong in Motegi and we expect the same from Stoner this year, but I’ve never won there with Yamaha so I will be doing my best to change that this week.

"We’re not thinking of the championship, we know it’s probably out of our reach, but we can do the best we can to try to keep it open for as long as possible and this will be our goal next week. Our top speed is much better with the new engine, our tyres worked well in Portugal and now we hope we have the same situation again in Japan."

Meanwhile, Casey Stoner hopes to get back on track and continue his winning streak that was ended by Rossi. Check out what the Aussie rider has to say about the race in Montegi:

"We weren’t so lucky in the race last Sunday but I think we should be able to come back strong at Motegi because we’ve got a great team and the bike and tyres are so strong at the moment. Motegi is Bridgestone’s home race and it’s in Japan, so I know Ducati always likes to do well there! Ducati has taken pole position and the win the last two times we’ve been to Motegi, so it would be nice if we can do the same. I really want to try and win a few more races before the end of the season. And if we focus on winning races, then the championship should come. Motegi is a bit of a computer-designed track but it works well. We were very competitive there last year and the year before I was on the 250 podium. You need a bike that’s very good on the brakes, which should be good for us. You also need good acceleration, which we still need to improve. We’ve got good midrange and top end but our bottom end needs improving a little bit."

Well, may the best rider win. I won’t be biased with Stoner this time. Ha-ha.