Casey Stoner cautious on extending winning streak

Casey Stoner has played down the prospect of extending his current golden run of winning form in the 2011 MotoGP world championship.

The impressive Aussie has dominated the last three races in Le Mans, Catalunya and Silverstone to open up an 18-point lead over reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo.

The Repsol Honda heads to next week’s Dutch clash at the historic Assen circuit bidding to win four races in succession for the first time in his career.

But the 2007 world champion said he was cautious on extending his winning run after being victorious in four out of six appearances for HRC.

The next four tracks on the calendar (Assen, Mugello, Sachsenring and Laguna Seca) are all favourites of Stoner’s where’s he’s previously won for Ducati.

But he said he was taking nothing for granted despite his recent purple patch. “I really enjoy all the tracks coming up but anything can happen in racing, I could make a mistake, so it’s a matter of seeing what happens. Each race is a clean slate for me and because I won the previous race has nothing to do with it,“ said Stoner.

Although only six races of the season have elapsed, the 2011 title race looks to have developed into a two-horse race between Stoner and Spanish rival Jorge Lorenzo.

Lorenzo lost the title lead in Silverstone when he failed to finish a MotoGP race for the first time since the Phillip Island round in October, 2009.

With Valentino Rossi struggling to make the factory Ducati GP11 a consistent podium challenger and Dani Pedrosa’s title hopes scuppered by injury again, Stoner added: “Jorge is the only competition for the championship at the moment but there are a lot of guys running hard.

“What made Jorge so impressive last year was that his confidence kept building and the more his confidence built the faster he became and I don’t see the Yamaha being worse than last year. If it is they should go back to last year’s bike. Our bike isn’t really any better than last year. It’s the same bike as 2010.

“Jorge had a lot of confidence last year and that’s why he was getting quicker and quicker so it’s a bit of surprise that he’s struggling to sometimes match his times from last year. I’m sure with a bit more confidence and going to some circuits where he is a bit more confident we might see something extra.”