By Steve Parrish BBC motorbikes commentator

Having such a large lead makes it an interesting scenario for Casey Stoner and he needs to be careful

MotoGP returns after a summer break with Casey Stoner nursing a very healthy 44-point lead at the top of the standings.

He has been back in his native Australia for a brief holiday but, behind the scenes, rival teams have not have been afforded the luxury of a rest.

I'm told that none of Yamaha's technicians got any holiday as they battle to get Valentino Rossi up to speed with Stoner and I would almost guarantee none of the Michelin guys did either.

Yamaha say they are going to come back with more power - but Stoner's Ducati team don't need to worry about that.

What they have to think about more than anything is reliability.

I expect the engineers at Ducati certainly won't have been looking for any more power, they will have been making sure that Stoner's bike is absolutely bullet-proof.

Having such a large lead makes it an interesting scenario for Stoner and he needs to be careful.

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He will want to go out there and win every race, but it would be very silly going hell for leather to try and win when there is the danger of falling off and losing points.

So it will be creeping into his mind to get himself on the podium rather than to go all out to win races.

Mathematically five-times champion Rossi can still win the title, but his chances of doing so are quite remote.

He did come back from a bigger deficit last year to nearly overhaul Nicky Hayden, but the American wasn't winning races like Stoner is.

The package that Stoner has is always going to be on the podium and Nicky Hayden wasn't doing that last year so it will be very hard for Rossi.

However he has nothing to lose so he can get his head down and go all out for victory.

One piece of news that made the headlines while we have been away was Stoner's team-mate Loris Capirossi's unhappiness at finding out via a press release that Marco Melandri was going to replace him next year.

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I can understand that he is upset as Ducati have always said in the past that they are not just a racing team, they are a family and treat people like their sons.

It did seem a little underhand the way they went about it as there were rumours that Melandri had been given a deal at the start of the year.

He has been with them a long time and done Ducati a great deal of good. They have offered to run a third bike for him, but to be honest I doubt that he will take them up on their offer.

So it will be interesting to see how he approaches the rest of the season and whether it will affect team morale.

The most exciting news of late has been the confirmation that Britain's James Toseland is moving from World Superbikes to MotoGP to ride for Yamaha's Tech 3 team next year.

I am absolutely over the moon. It is such a godsend that we will have such a talented young rider like James in MotoGP on what I think will be a good bike.

A lot of people have reservations, but I think the team will pick their game up a great deal and I know they will be on much better tyres than they have been on in the past.

I think he will be competitive and can certainly finish in the top six or seven, despite the fact it will take him a little while to learn the all the circuits.

1. Rossi 2. Pedrosa 3. Stoner

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