Stoner secures home victory
Hometown favourite Casey Stoner made up for some of his disappointment for not retaining the MotoGP world title by taking a lights-to-flag victory at Phillip Island
Stoner jumped into the lead at the start and never looked back, absorbing pressure from Nicky Hayden for the first ten laps before Hayden began to fall away from the Australian.
With Dani Pedrosa falling at turn two on lap one, the win almost guarantees Stoner second place in the championship.
Behind Stoner, it seemed certain that Hayden would finish second. But Valentino Rossi, recovering from starting twelfth after his qualifying crash, grabbed the place at the start of the last lap as Hayden's tyres faded in the closing laps.
Rossi made early progress to be fifth by the start of lap four, and fourth two laps later, but then he came upon James Toseland. Lap after lap, the two ran nose-to-tail with Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso and Shinya Nakano just behind.
On lap eight Rossi moved ahead, only for Toseland to take the place back a lap later. Lap twelve saw Rossi move into third into turn one, but Toseland immediately took the place back into turn two.
Finally, on lap 13, just short of half-distance, Rossi made the move stick and began his successful chase of Hayden.
With Rossi gone, the pack continued to battle hard. Toseland remained at the head of it until three laps to go, with shuffling over the closing laps ending with Lorenzo in fourth ahead of Nakano, Toseland and Dovizioso, the four bikes covered by less than 1.5 seconds.
Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 40:56.643 2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) + 6.504 3. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) + 7.205 4. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) + 11.500 5. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) + 11.914 6. James Toseland Yamaha (M) + 12.243 7. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) + 12.780 8. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) + 25.920 9. Randy de Puniet Honda (M) + 26.037 10. Loris Capirossi Suzuki (B) + 26.799 11. Toni Elias Ducati (B) + 27.027 12. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) + 47.808 13. John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) + 48.333 14. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) + 48.899 15. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) + 48.935 16. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) +1:11.767 Retirements: Rider Bike Laps Dani Pedrosa Honda (B) 0 Alex de Angelis Honda (B) 0
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