Casey Stoner is looking to bounce back from his dramatic German Grand Prix crash at this weekend’s Italian round of the MotoGP World Championship.

The Australian looked set to take over the outright lead in the riders’ standings at the Sachsenring as he battled with Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa for the win.

But an error towards the end of the final lap put Stoner in the gravel, allowing Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo to finish second and move 20 points clear in the standings.

Pedrosa’s win also moved him above Stoner, and the two-time world champion, who is to retire at the end of the season, is eager to make amends for his mistake.

He hopes the more open expanses of Mugello will suit him more than the tight and twisting Sachsenring.

“Last year didn’t go to plan but we know what we did wrong so hopefully this year we can be a little more competitive,” Stoner said.

“I really enjoy the fast corners there, there are a lot of areas where we get a lot of wheel spin and a lot of fast changes of direction. It’s not a small dinky little track that you can’t use these bikes on, it’s somewhere where you can open the throttle up and actually get to full throttle.”

Valentino Rossi has dominated proceedings at Mugello for much of his 12 seasons in the top class, winning seven times in a row between 2002 and 2008.

But he suffered a broken leg in a crash there in 2010 and could only finish sixth in his debut year with Ducati in 2011.

The seven-time champion currently sits sixth in the standings but after his performance at the Sachsenring, where he finished sixth, he is ready to give it his all in the home race for himself and Ducati.

“Last weekend was our best result of the year so far in the dry, so now we’ll start from that base in an effort to improve at Mugello,” he said.

“It’s the Italian Grand Prix, so everyone, including myself, must make an extra effort to do well in our home race.”