The 16-year-old Stoner said the week away from the pressure of racing, spent just 300 metres from the Welsh border, had "cleared the head" and helped him to prepare for round eight of the 250cc world championship at Donington Park.

Donington is a picturesque 4.023km circuit in the English Midlands, and this weekend's GP will mark the half way point in the 16-round series. Stoner, from Kurri Kurri in New South Wales, has raced at Donington several times - including winning the opening round of last year's national British 125cc championship - but not always on the long track that is used for the GP.

"I don't particularly like the Donington track, but I seem to go well there," Stoner said.

"Three quarters of the track is flowing, but the last section is quite tight.

"The weather forecast is looking a bit dodgy, so it could be wet this weekend."

Riding for the Italian-based Safilo Oxydo Race LCR team, Stoner became the youngest rider to score points in the 250cc world championship with his sixth place finish in the Spanish GP at Jerez in May.

He repeated the feat on another Spanish circuit at the Catalunya GP, just a month after he cracked a scaphoid bone in his wrist in a crash at the French GP in May.

"My wrist is OK now, and is feeling pretty strong," Stoner said.

"I was doing special exercises for it, but it has come good and I can use it normally now, so it's back to the regular training program again."

Stoner has qualified four times in the top eight, making him the youngest rider to start in the first two rows of a 250cc grid.

He is 12th in the championship on 28 points after finishing eighth in the latest round at Assen, Holland.

This weekend's British GP sees the return of Australia's Garry McCoy to the premier MotoGP category after missing the past four races with a leg injury.

McCoy, 30, from Camden, on the outskirts of Sydney, will be back aboard his two-stroke 500cc Yamaha ? the latest version of the machine on which he won three GPs in 2000.

Italian Valentino Rossi will celebrate his 100th GP at Donington, where he won his first 500cc race in 2000 and took victory again last year on his way to the world title.

Rossi has won six of the seven MotoGP races this season, while his Yamaha four-stroke rivals - Italian Max Biaggi and Spain's Carlos Checa - have had five podium finishes between them.

Another Italian, Marco Melandri, is looking for a fourth straight 250cc win on his Aprilia, after taking the championship lead from Spaniard Fonsi Nieto in Holland.