Stoner Wins At Phillip Island

Casey Stoner topped a memorable 26th birthday by clinching his second MotoGP title with dominant victory at his home race.

Stoner was followed across the line by Italian rider Marco Simoncelli finished second, with compatriot Andrea Dovizioso in third.

Repsol Honda rider Stoner last won the title for Ducati in 2007. and he added: "We have been thinking about this all week but, to be honest, I didn't think we had a chance of taking the title today.

Stoner did not face the challenge of his main rival Jorge Lorenzo who suffered a serious crash that required surgery that ruled him out of the race. Casey Stoner said after the race "Jorge has been so fast and consistent all season but he had a crash with quite a serious injury so my thoughts are with him.

"That gave me the opportunity but the track threw everything at us with wind, rain and hail. I wanted to seal it today and we did that.

"The momentum was with us and it was our title to lose."

Lorenzo was passed unfit to race after losing the tip of the ring finger of his left hand, leaving Stoner to make a clean start to lead through turn one.

Nicky Hayden Ducati Team and Marco Simoncelli San Carlo Honda Gresini Team followed Stoner into turn one, with the Italian making an early move on Hayden to take second. Simoncelli then spent the remainder of the race swapping positions with Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda, before beating his compatriot across the line for his best MotoGP finish of second.

Simoncelli in his usual aggressive style forced his way past Hayden to get into second through the final corner, the manouvre also caused Hayden to let Andrea Dovizioso into third.

Stoner increased his lead to six seconds when light rain started to fall over some of the circuit on lap 10 but only two riders entered the pits to change bikes to a wet setup.

Nicky Hayden changed bikes, along with Loris Capirossi Pramac Racing, though it did not help their finishing positions as Hayden ended the race seventh behind Randy de Puniet Pramac Racing despite De Puniet having had an earlier offtrack excursion, with Capirossi finishing ninth behind Toni Elías LCR Honda.

Dani Pedrosa took Dovizioso with 15 laps remaining and Rossi overhauled team-mate Hayden to re-enter the top six, but Rossi shot past Alvaro Bautista a lap later only to lose the front end in the drizzle at turn 10 and crashed out.

Dovizioso retook third spot from past team-mate Pedrosa as the rain stopped.

The track further dampened as the rain returned with three laps to go catching Bautista out in the wet as well as Cal Crutchlow and Hiroshi Aoyama as all three slid out of the race.

Australian MotoGP race result

1 Casey Stoner (Aus) Repsol Honda 42'02.425
2 Marco Simoncelli (Ita) Gresini Honda 42'04.635
3 Andrea Dovizioso (Ita) Repsol Honda 42'04.879
4 Dani Pedrosa (Spn) Repsol Honda 42'15.585
5 Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 42'33

Championship standings

Casey Stoner Repsol Honda 325
Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 260
Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda 212
Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda 208
Ben Spies Yamaha 156
Marco Simoncelli San Marco Gresini Honda 139