Casey Stoner celebrated his 26th birthday, the his fifth consecutive victory at Phillip Island, his ninth of the season and the 2011 World Championship title, all at his home circuit in what turned out to be an eventful race.
The Australian only needed to finish sixth after title rival Jorge Lorenzo was unable to start following the finger injury he sustained in his warm-up crash, but the Repsol Honda rider dominated from the start of the race as he was able to cruise to victory with no one even close to contest him.
This is Stoner’s second world title after his 2007 one with Ducati and he took the 2011 title with 9 victories, 15 podiums and 11 pole positions as he also handed Honda the 2011 manufacturers title, their first since the 800cc era.
The race was pretty eventful even considering Stoner’s domination, as Marco Simoncelli took the second place on the podium after battling it out with rival Andrea Dovizioso in the final laps of the race, making it an all Honda podium.
Dani Pedrosa was fourth after dicing it out with Dovizioso, but backed off when it started raining with only three laps to go.
The wet track claimed almost immediately three victims; Alvaro Bautista who was riding in fifth, Cal Crutchlow and Hiroshi Aoyama all crashed on the same lap, while Nicky Hayden and Loris Capirossi decided to pit and switch to their rain set-up bikes and they finished in seventh and ninth (one lap down) respectively.
Colin Edwards came in fifth ahead of Randy de Puniet, who recovered from running off track earlier in the race.
Toni Elias was seventh, his best result of the year, even though he was one laps downValentino Rossi strangely enough was almost fast as the front runners, excluding Stoner, and managed to catch team mate Nicky Hayden and the pass Bautista at the MG for fifth during lap 14, but the front of his Ducati suddenly folded sending him into the gravel pit.
Karel Abraham also crashed, but he was able to remount his Ducati and due to all the previous crashes finish in tenth and he was two laps down.
MotoGP Phillip Island race results:01- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – 27 laps in 42’02.
42502- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 2.
21003- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 2.
45404- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 13.
16005- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 30.
88606- Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 48.
80007- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11.
1 + 1’16.
31408- Toni Elias – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – 1 lap09- Loris Capirossi – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – 1 lap10- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – 2 laps