Buzzin MotoGP

Casey Stoner

Casey Stoner on the Ducati Marlboro took the victory at Philip Island on Sunday in front of his home crowd after dominating the race from the start.

Stoner hadn’t won a race since the Sachsenring and has since been plagued with injury problems.  He is suffering from an old injury that occurred five years ago and has said that if he doesn’t have further surgery it could be the end of his career despite the risk of the surgery itself.

Nicky Hayden on the Repsol Honda pressured Stoner for the first ten laps of the race until a gap began to emerge.

Hayden’s team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, crashed out at turn two on the first lap of the Australian Grand Prix and couldn’t return to the track.  Pedrosa had qualified in sixth position but after taking third off the line at the start of the race he ran wide as his tyres started to slide.

Hayden looked sure to be on the podium in second place until Valentino Rossi on the Fiat Yamaha who had started in twelfth position after his crash in qualifying started to claw his way to the front.

By lap four Rossi had moved up into fifth place and was in fourth by lap six before he started an ongoing battle with James Toseland on the Yamaha Tech 3.

The pair stuck together swapping the lead while behind another battle was going on with Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso and Shinya Nikano for fourth place.  On lap thirteen Rossi kept the lead and started to track down Hayden.

Here are the results;

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