Phillip Island Photos
Casey Stoner rocked the Australian Grand Prix to a fourth MotoGP race win on the season riding his Ducati GP10. Stoner lead on his Ducati ride, which is set to expire this season, from start to finish at Phillip Island to take his third victory from the last four rounds of the MotoGP World Championship.
Stoner has led all but one MotoGP lap on his Ducati since 2007 and after taking pole position and finishing 1.890 seconds quicker than his nearest rival in warm-up this morning he was untouchable in this year’s motorcycle race, crossing the line 8.598 seconds clear of Jorge Lorenzo on his Yamaha M1 racing motorcycle.
Nicky Hayden and his Ducati GP10 came through from sixth on the grid to mount a sensational battle for the podium, passing three motorcycle riders on the first lap before exchanging positions with Marco Simoncelli (Honda RC212V), Ben Spies (Yamaha M1) and Valentino Rossi (Yamaha M1, switching to Ducati in 2011) in a breathtaking opening to the MotoGP race.
Hayden and V4 Ducati passed Rossi with three laps remaining. It looked to be enough to seal third place finish but the Italian motorcycle rider staged a late attack to edge out the American Ducati combination by just 0.038 seconds at the line.