STONER'S PILING ON THE PAIN IN SPAIN

FORMER champion Casey Stoner is on course to end his MotoGP campaign with a hat-trick of victories.

He dominated opening practice for tomorrow’s final round at ­Valencia, showing the sort of form that has earned him wins in Australia and Malaysia.

Stoner, who won in Spain last season, is out to repeat the feat.

He has battled back to form ­after illness and exhaustion forced him to miss three rounds of this season’s championship.

The Aussie warmed up with a scorching lap of 1m 32.813secs aboard his Ducati, comfortably faster than local favourites Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.

“Overall I am happy with the way the season has gone for me,” said Stoner.

“And things are looking good for us for next year when I think we will be a lot stronger.”

That will worry his rivals, ­including Valentino Rossi, who secured his ninth world title in the last round.

Rossi had to settle for fourth in practice yesterday with a lap of 1m 33.499secs.

“The pressure is off now, and we can just enjoy ourselves,” said Rossi, who has not enjoyed the best of fortunes at the Spanish circuit.

Like Stoner, Rossi has one eye on the future .

“On Monday we will start ­working on the new M1 bike and I’m very excited to try it,” said the champion.

James Toseland, meanwhile, was 13th fastest going into his ­final Grand Prix before switching to Superbikes, in a time of 1m 34.865secs.

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