Casey Stoner has dominated at his home track taking his third victory in a row on Sunday at Phillip Island, leading Valentino Rossi over the line by a margin of only 1.935s.

 

In his second GP return following a three race absence, the 24 year-old celebrated his birthday with a solid victory from pole position, his third event win of the year, which takes him to third in the overall rankings.

 

A disappointing weekend for Jorge Lorenzo when the Spaniard smashed out at on the first lap following a touch of bikes with Stoner’s Ducati Marlboro colleague Nicky Hayden. Struggling through the testing sessions and qualifying with rear grip faults and illness, Lorenzo could not continue following his slide, though Hayden climbed back on his Desmosedici GP9 to end up in 15th spot.

 

Rossi’s second placing widened his lead at the head of the championship to 38 points over Fiat Yamaha colleague Lorenzo with only two events left, after it had been reduced to 18 points from Lorenzo’s win at Estoril.

 

Dani Pedrosa took his first podium at the track in the MotoGP class, arriving 22.618s behind Rossi, while Alex de Angelis’ completed the top four with a fourth position.

 

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) claimed fifth spot, Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) improved on his worst qualifying place since Germany (tenth) to arrive into sixth spot.

 

Marco Melandri (Hayate), Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda), Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) and Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini) all completed the top ten.

 

Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) arrived twelfth after being taken to the rear of the grid when his squad was penalised for using an extra motor outside its allocation.