2007 MotoGP - Phillip Island, Australia

FIAT Yamaha Abarth Livery.  Photo Courtesy Yamaha Racing

Race Results
Ducati Marlboro’s newly crowned World Champion Casey Stoner delighted the home crowd at Phillip Island today with a superb ride to victory by seven seconds at the GMC Australian Grand Prix.

Stoner joined MotoGP Legends Mick Doohan and Wayne Gardner on an exclusive list of World Champions to have won on home soil in Australia as he came from third on the grid to take the hole shot and control the race from start to finish.

As Ducati confirmed the constructors’ World Championship, and Ducati Marlboro the teams’ title, Loris Capirossi made it a great day for his team as he in the runners-up spot, for a second podium in successive races following his Japanese hat-trick win.  Apparent tyre deterioration meant Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) could only finish third, when he had wanted to fight for victory from second on the grid, while Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa looked similarly disappointed to finish fourth having started on pole.

The top five was rounded off by Pramac d’Antin’s Alex Barros, who finished just ahead of Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet and Rizla Suzuki’s John Hopkins.  The second Australian across the line was Hopkins’ Suzuki colleague Chris Vermeulen in eighth, while Yamaha’s Colin Edwards and Honda Gresini’s Marco Melandri completed the top ten.

It is fair to say that 2007 has not been Nicky Hayden’s year and last season’s champion was unfortunately forced to retire in third place on lap 13, having made a great start from fourth on the grid to run with Stoner in the early stages.

Yamaha Team Report
Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi claimed his tenth consecutive career podium, taking third place and clocking the fastest lap of the race in the process.  Team-mate Colin Edwards finished ninth in a race that was won by Casey Stoner, with Loris Capirossi second.

Starting second on the grid, Rossi slipped to fourth but passed Dani Pedrosa on lap two, only to make a small mistake at the end of the lap, briefly touching the grass at the start of the main straight and letting Pedrosa back past.

On lap four of 27 he managed to get in front of the Spaniard once again and he then set off after Nicky Hayden, who was running second behind Stoner.  Despite setting the fastest lap on lap seven, Rossi was unable to make much headway until lap 11, when he passed Hayden for second.

As Stoner gradually extended his advantage in front however it became clear that Rossi's fight would be for the runner-up spot as he became embroiled in a three-way battle with Capirossi and Pedrosa.  After several changes of position between the trio Pedrosa tailed off and it briefly looked like another being another vintage Rossi-Capirossi showdown, but with little grip left in his tires Rossi was unable to keep pace with his compatriot and he eventually crossed the line three seconds adrift, with Stoner several seconds ahead of Capirossi.

After failing to find a comfortable setting throughout the practice sessions, Edwards made a change to his setting for the race and, although it took him some laps to adapt and he dropped a few positions early on, he kept pushing throughout and was able to peg back several places.  He finished ninth and claimed seven points, which moves him up one place in the championship to eighth.  Rossi's 16-point haul meanwhile sees him move 29 points clear in second place, ahead of Pedrosa.  The team now heads directly to Sepang for the Malaysian Grand Prix in just seven days time.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 3rdTime: +10.038:  "Honestly I'm not too disappointed today because I know I did everything I could have possibly done.  I started okay and in the opening laps I felt like I could go quite fast and have the chance to fight at the front.  I passed Pedrosa and at that stage I was quite close to Hayden and Stoner, but then I made a small mistake coming onto the straight and lost a bit of time.  I managed to pass Pedrosa again but then I wasn't able to close the gap to Stoner, even though I was riding at the maximum."

"In places I had fun and I made some good passes; at the end especially I was hoping for a great battle with Capirossi, like the old days, but by then the grip from my rear tire was very poor and I had to slow down to make sure I would arrive to the end.  I am very happy that I was on the podium because this is a special place and it's always a big emotion to stand there with all the crowds in pit lane.  Today with Casey I think it was a bit like for me in Mugello!  Anyway, now we go straight to Malaysia, where our bike usually goes well, so once again we will do the maximum and try for the win."

Qualifying
Valentino Rossi qualified second for the second consecutive race at Phillip Island today, sealing his eleventh front-row start of the season at a track that has seen him top the podium seven times in his career.

The Fiat Yamaha Team rider will share the front row with Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner, promising an exciting battle between the top three riders in the championship for tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix.

Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards meanwhile had a less successful qualifying session, setting the eleventh fastest lap, which will put him in the middle of the fourth row on tomorrow's grid.

Following a day of changeable weather yesterday, this morning saw Rossi and Edwards sixth and tenth respectively in similar conditions, with the track starting out fully wet but drying quickly throughout the session to produce some faster times in the latter stages.

Thankfully however the bad weather looked to have run its course by the afternoon and the riders were rewarded their first fully-dry hour on.

Rossi was lapping comfortably in the top third of the field through most of the session, as he made the most of the time available to refine his race set-up and tyre choice.  With ten minutes to go his first lap on a qualifying tire put him just ahead of Casey Stoner, the Australian having put in an early qualifying lap to provisionally head the board.

Phillip Island Race Circuit, Australia

Circuit Name: Phillip Island Circuit Length: 4445 m Opened 1956 Lap Record: 1' 30.332 (Marco Melandri, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 29.201 (Daniel Pedrosa, 2007)

Rossi however was soon knocked off the top by Stoner on his second tire and then pushed down to third when Dani Pedrosa put in the eventual pole time of 1'29.201.  With four minutes to go Rossi came close to edging the Spaniard off but eventually had to settle for second with a lap of 1'29.419.

Edwards moved into the top six at one point during the session but was unable to find the right setting with which to properly exploit his Michelin qualifying tire and his best lap was 1.475 off Pedrosa's, leaving him with an uphill battle for tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 2ndTime: 1'29.419Laps: 28:  "Today has been a good day and this afternoon especially we were able to have a very positive practice.  This afternoon was the first full hour we've had in the dry and we were able to do some very good work on the setting.  Now we have a clear idea about what we need to do for tomorrow, because we still have a few things to improve."

"We also need to make our final tire choice and this is going to be very important for tomorrow.  I'm really happy because today it was great fun to ride my M1 around this track, which I love.  I was quite confident with the qualifying tire and when I saw 29.4 I thought maybe it was enough for the pole, but Pedrosa was even faster."

"Anyway second is a good result and the important thing is that we're on the front row.  We now need to improve our race pace a little bit more if possible and then I hope for a great race tomorrow."

Colin Edwards - Position: 11thTime: 1'30.676Laps: 24:  "Honestly speaking, I just don't know exactly what the problem is this weekend, but we can't seem to get the bike to work how we want it to.  We've tried all sorts to find a way forward but it's still feeling nervous and twitchy and just not like the bike I know."

"I couldn't get in or out of corners how I wanted today and I was lacking corner speed, so it was really a hard slog.  With the qualifier I was a lot better but it still wasn't enough to push for the top spots.  We've got some issues and we need to put our heads together to try to pull something out of the bag for tomorrow.  We'll make the most of warm-up and see what we can do."