Stoner leads Ducati 1-2 in Australia

A great launch off the line propelled the Australian first into Doohan Corner, and despite some early pressure from 2006 world champion Nicky Hayden, he was never headed, taking a seven second victory at his home event.

Stoner's teammate and Ducati veteran Loris Capirossi followed his win in Japan with a charging ride, picking his way through the order to take second place, three seconds ahead of Yamaha's multiple world champion Valentino Rossi.

It is the second time Ducati have taken a 1-2 finish in the MotoGP class, the first being at the final round in Valencia last year where Nicky Hayden beat Valentino Rossi to the title. In both races Capirossi finished second to an Australian teammate.

The start of the race saw Stoner jump immediately into the lead ahead of Hayden, who made an even better start than Stoner, Pedrosa and Rossi. Rossi took third from Pedrosa at Honda Hairpin on lap two, but gave the position back when he ran wide exiting the final turn at the end of the lap.

As Stoner and Hayden edged away at the front, Melandri joined the top five runners. Lap four was not a good one for Pedrosa, losing third place to Rossi at Southern Loop and fourth to Melandri at Honda.

On lap six Melandri and Pedrosa swapped fourth back and forth between them, doing the same a lap later before Pedrosa retook the place exiting Honda Hairpin. The race settled down at this point, as Stoner began to slowly pull away from Hayden at the front.

On lap 10 Hayden lost a second to Stoner, appearing to struggle with rear tyre wear, which allowed Rossi to pass him into Southern Loop a lap later. Two laps later and Hayden was out of the race, pulling his bike off at Lukey Heights with a suspected engine problem.

The battle for third was now where the interest was, Melandri and Capirossi, who had joined him after falling back in the early laps, right behind Pedrosa. An attempt by Melandri at Lukey Heights on lap 16 almost brought him unstuck, doing well to hold onto the place.

Meanwhile Rossi, in second place, had fallen into their clutches. Lap 18 saw two changes, as Capirossi took Melandri at Doohan Corner, while Pedrosa got Rossi into Southern Loop for second.

In just over a lap, Pedrosa had gone from almost falling to fourth to taking second place, while Melandri, who had almost taken that third place, sharply lost pace after being passed by Capirossi and faded down the order.

Lap 19 was the most important lap for the remainder of the race. Capirossi had now caught Rossi, and took third place into Doohan, immediately following it with a pass on Pedrosa into the following corner at Southern Loop. There was more bad news for Pedrosa, who was passed two corners later by Rossi at Honda.

By now Stoner knew he had victory in his hands, and consolidated his seven second margin over second place. Capirossi opened a couple of seconds over Rossi, who held out Pedrosa. Alex Barros was a distant fifth, with Randy de Puniet recovering from a poor start to take sixth, just ahead of Suzuki's John Hopkins.

Marco Melandri, who looked set for a podium finish at half distance, faded badly in the closing laps and finish 10th, a battle between Carlos Checa and Anthony West in the closing laps saving him from falling another two places.

Classified:

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  41:12.244
 2.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    (B)  +   6.763
 3.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (M)  +  10.038
 4.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     (M)  +  11.663
 5.  Alex Barros       Ducati    (B)  +  19.475
 6.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  (B)  +  27.313
 7.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    (B)  +  29.243
 8.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  +  34.833
 9.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  +  35.073
10.  Marco Melandri    Honda     (B)  +  36.971
11.  Carlos Checa      Honda     (M)  +  37.721
12.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  +  38.426
13.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (M)  +  47.430
14.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    (D)  +  54.324
15.  Toni Elias        Honda     (B)  +1:10.471
16.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    (D)  +1:12.904
17.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        (M)  +1:13.020

Not classified/retirements:

     Rider             Bike           Laps
     Chaz Davies       Ducati    (B)   13
     Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)   12