Steve Parrish's MotoGP column

Back-to-back races are always a logistical headache for the MotoGP paddock, but this weekend's near 5,000-mile trip from Indianapolis to Misano is a real test.

After a late-night arrival back in the UK, it has been a hectic few days for me so I can't imagine how busy it is for the teams.

I left Indianapolis on Sunday night as the teams were packing up all their pit garage into cases and at about 10pm the trucks started leaving for either Indianapolis or Chicago airports.

A couple of 747s would have been waiting for them and the whole lot was flown to Milan or Rome to arrive on Tuesday morning. The containers would then be driven across Italy all day on Tuesday to Misano and the garages set up on Wednesday morning ready for the riders to arrive on Thursday.

There is no room for error and if any of the teams had a lot of crashes or mechanical issues at Indy it could be a tricky start to this weekend. It is quite an operation.

If there's one rider who will not be bothered by the trek then it is Casey Stoner. He made it three wins in a row at Indy and is just having one of those runs of form.

He is riding extremely well and has the best package in terms of bike and team at the moment and it is hard to see anyone beating him at Misano.

It is a proper European circuit with some interesting corners and it is one for the brave with some real hard, fast turns and you need to be confident in the front end of the bike.

It is always a party atmosphere there as it is down on the beach and Marco Simoncelli, Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi will all have lots of home support.

It is that time of year with lots of rumours around the pitlane, and the latest interesting line is that Northern Irish rider Eugene Laverty is looking at a ride in the Tech 3 Yamaha team for next year.

There is a lot of interest in the ride with Bradley Smith also in the running.

If either of those get the seat alongside Cal Crutchlow then an all-UK team would be great for the sport so we just need Crutchlow to get firing again.

He had a solid finish at Indy and Misano is a track he knows well so hopefully he'll be back up there this weekend.

Misano prediction:

1) Casey Stoner 2) Jorge Lorenzo 3) Dani Pedrosa

Steve Parrish was talking to BBC Sport's Tom Rostance