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Germany may hold one particularly warm memory for Casey Stoner, but the current MotoGP leader knows that he has a tough task ahead of him there this coming weekend.

As the young Australian noted, it was in the 125cc race at Sachsenring four years ago that he took his first podium in first class racing, but he admitted that the track is far harder to negotiate on the 800cc bikes used in MotoGP.

Stoner continued to reiterate that each race remains something of a learning curve at the moment and although he is satisfied with both the performance of his Ducati and his Bridgestone tyres, he knows they will have to be just right for him to succeed on Sunday.

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He explained: "You definitely need good side grip because through a lot of those long corners you need to keep the gas open as long as possible.

"You also need to get your head around those uphill and downhill corners - coming down the hill into those fast lefts gets a bit scary, you have to make sure your suspension doesn't bottom out, then you head back up the hill and then down again."

Despite his early success at Sachsenring, Stoner has failed to manage a top three finish there since, missing out on the race both in 2004 and last year and coming seventh in the 250cc class race in 2005.

By contrast, his nearest rival Valentino Rossi has an excellent record in Germany, with eight podiums in 11 appearances there and the Yamaha man will be hoping to reduce Stoner's 21 point lead over him with another good performance this time around.

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