Casey Stoner’s dominance on his home Phillip Island track continued on Sunday as the Ducati rider won there for a fourth consecutive year. Starting from his third pole position of the season, the 25 year-old led the Australian Grand Prix from beginning to end, crossing the finish line 8.598s ahead of 2010 World Champion Jorge Lorenzo to take his third victory of 2010 in front of a partisan crowd.
Lorenzo too ran a lonely race in second position, finishing almost ten seconds ahead of team-mate Valentino Rossi to garner his 14th podium finish this year. Rossi on the other hand had to move up from eighth position and fight for third with Stoner’s team-mate Nicky Hayden, a dramatic battle the Italian won by just 0.038s with a block pass on the American at the Honda Hairpin on the final lap—the same move Hayden had pulled on Rossi the lap before.
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa, recovering from a broken collar bone suffered during practice at Motegi two weeks ago, planned to come back for today’s race, but withdrew after completing two practice sessions where he was well off the pace and in considerable pain. The Spaniard, trying to hold on to second overall, hopes to be fit enough compete in the next race on October 31 at Estoril in Portugal.
2010 Australian Grand Prix Race Results
1. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 41m 9.128s
2. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Fiat Yamaha Team 41m 17.726s
3. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 41m 27.125s
4. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team 41m 27.163s
5. Ben Spies USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 41m 31.339s
6. Marco Simoncelli ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 41m 34.145s
7. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 41m 44.296s
8. Aleix Espargaro ESP Pramac Racing 41m 55.322s
9. Marco Melandri ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 41m 55.422s
10. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 42m 8.763s
11. Mika Kallio FIN Pramac Racing 42m 8.792s
12. Alvaro Bautista ESP Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 42m 8.860s
13. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Interwetten Honda 42m 14.157s
14. Hector Barbera ESP Paginas Amarillas Aspar 42m 14.181s
DNF:
Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team
2010 MotoGP Championship Standings
1 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Spa 333
2 Dani Pedrosa Honda Spa 228
3 Casey Stoner Ducati Aus 205
4 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Ita 197
5 Andrea Dovizioso Honda Ita 179
6 Ben Spies Yamaha Usa 163
7 Nicky Hayden Ducati Usa 152
8 Marco Simoncelli Honda Ita 102
9 Randy De Puniet Honda Fra 100
10 Marco Melandri Honda Ita 93
11 Colin Edwards Yamaha Usa 90
12 Hector Barbera Ducati Spa 76
13 Alvaro Bautista Suzuki Spa 73
14 Aleix Espargaro Ducati Spa 60
15 Hiroshi Aoyama Honda Jpn 47
16 Mika Kallio Ducati Fin 43
17 Loris Capirossi Suzuki Ita 41
18 Alex De Angelis Honda Rsm 11
19 Roger Lee Hayden Honda Usa 5
20 Kousuke Akiyoshi Honda Jpn 4
21 Wataru Yoshikawa Yamaha Jpn 1
