Phillip Island MotoGP: Sunday (updated regularly)

NEWEST AT TOP

Pramac Racing

Good start for Mika Kallio in the Grand Prix of Australia ridden on the Phillip Island circuit. The Finnish rider, who started from ninth position, found himself in sixth place after the first lap. From here to the fifteenth lap Mika was battling in the group with Melandri, Dovizioso and De Puniet maintaining a good race rhythm, but from the sixteenth lap the front tyre lost some grip and Mika had to slow down to don’t risk to fall. Mika’s lap time were almost a second slower and he lost the group and made it to conclude the race in ninth position. Mika will have now the possibility to conquer a better result in seven days in Malaysia on the Sepang circuit.

Fabiano Sterlacchini – Pramac Racing Technical Director
“Mika has found a good feeling with the Ducati Desmosedici GP9 Sat. At Estoril and here in Australia Mika was fighting for fifth, sixth position, but first in Portugal a slip and today a technical problem didn’t allow him to fight at the same level with his rivals until the end of the race. For sure we can say that in the last two races luck hasn’t been on our side. We know what we are capable of and we are sure that better results will arrive really soon.”

Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing rider – 9th in the race – 15th in the Championship
“I am very disappointed today notwithstanding the ninth position isn’t such a bad result. Until half of the race I was easily fighting for sixth position, but then something happened in the front part of the tyre and I couldn’t maintain the same rhythm. From there on my only objective was to finish the race, as I didn’t want to throw away a full racing weekend. Back in the garage we have checked the situation of the bike and we could clearly see that the front tyre was particularly worn out. A pity, we know that this sort of thing can happen to anyone and we confide that in seven days in Malaysia we can achieve a better result, but the disappointment to have wasted a good opportunity remains.”

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Rizla Suzuki

Rizla Suzuki racers Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi finished in 11th and 12th place after 27 tough laps of today’s Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

Starting from 15th and 17th place on the grid respectively, Vermeulen and Capirossi set about the daunting task of making their way through the field. Both riders made passes as they tried to get a respectable result at the 4,448m track and also benefited from some misfortunes suffered by other riders to promote them further up the field. The Rizla Suzuki riders then got involved in their own personal battle, before Vermeulen came out on top by just over half-of-a-second to take 11th place from his team-mate.

A crowd of over 50,000 fans enjoyed bright sunshine for today’s race and witnessed home hero Casey Stoner take his third successive victory at Phillip Island. World Championship leader Valentino Rossi finished second to strengthen his grip on retaining his world title.

Rizla Suzuki will now regroup and head straight to Malaysia next weekend for the 16th round of the season on Sunday 25th October.

Chris Vermeulen:
“We went with the harder rear tyre because we didn’t notice a lot of difference between that and the softer one in practice, but in the first few laps we lost a lot of time as it took a lot to warm it. I was struggling, but then I had Loris on my tail for the rest of the race, so at least that gave us something to fight for. I had to ride consistently and make no mistakes, so with having Loris there kept me honest for the last few laps. Obviously we haven’t taken the step forward here that we wanted to, but hopefully it will be a lot better at Sepang.”

Loris Capirossi:
“It’s easy to say that today has been tough, but really we have struggled all weekend and never found the best solution. We also had an engine problem in the warm-up and that forced us to start on the back of the grid, but that was no big problem. My start was not too bad but I just didn’t have any feeling in the bike in the first five or six laps, so that was a nightmare for me. I caught up with Chris and we had a bit of a battle, but I couldn’t get past him. Overall this race track is very difficult for us and I think we need to forget this weekend because we tried as hard as we could and got nothing from it. I hope we will have a better weekend in Sepang because we really need a good result, but we also need to fix why things have been so bad here.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“There’s nothing positive to be said about the performance here today and frankly speaking we only inherited 11th and 12th through the misfortune of others. I’d like to thank both the riders for keeping their heads down and trying as hard as they did in such difficult circumstances. The trip to Sepang can’t come quickly enough and we’ll be going there with an upbeat attitude to get things back in the right direction as quickly as possible!”

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Fiat Yamaha

Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi finished a strong second in an entertaining Australian Grand Prix, chasing home Casey Stoner to finish on the podium for the tenth successive year at Phillip Island and for the eleventh time this season. Jorge Lorenzo’s challenge ended in the gravel trap at turn one, when a mistake at the start saw the Mallorcan slide out of the race.

Rossi, starting from the front row for the tenth race in a row, finished the first lap in third position, behind Dani Pedrosa and Stoner. On lap two both Stoner and Rossi passed the Spaniard and then quickly began to pull away on their own, quickly opening out a gap from the chasing pack. Darkening skies overhead at that point meant there was a rush in pit lane as the mechanics switched the spare bikes over to wet settings, but the sun eventually came out and the threat of rain subsided as the Italian and the Australian set in for a head-to-head battle. At times Rossi looked to be within striking distance and he made a couple of moves at mid-race distance, but with Lorenzo out he knew that he had to capitalise and he eventually played it safe to come home behind the resurgent Stoner with twenty important points in his pocket and an impressive gap of over twenty seconds to Pedrosa in third.

Lorenzo had struggled with grip issues all weekend here and he made a mistake at the start, braking too late and cannoning into the back of Nicky Hayden. The impact damaged his front brake and he was unable to slow down for the corner, losing the rear and tumbling into the gravel trap. He was taken to the Clinica Mobile and treated for mild cuts to his nose and the little finger of his right hand, but there were no serious injuries and nothing that will affect his being able to ride next week.

Today’s result means that Rossi now has a lead over Lorenzo of 38 points with two races left. He will have his first chance to clinch the World Championship title at the next round, which comes at Sepang in Malaysia in one week’s time.

Valentino Rossi, Position: 2nd Time: +1.935
“This was one of the most fun and definitely one of the most important second places of my career! We were on the limit for the whole race and there were some amazing slides, it was ‘old-style’ racing. To have a race like this in the sunshine at Phillip Island is an incredible emotion and I really enjoyed myself. Of course I wanted to win but I had to use my head a bit and once I’d seen that Lorenzo was out, I knew that if I made a mistake it would be a big disaster! Anyway I tried in places but Stoner was a bit faster than me. I didn’t give up until the end but Casey really deserved this win; I want to give him my congratulations. We leave with twenty important points and now the championship lead is big and we can try to finish it in Malaysia, where we will have the first ‘match point’.”

Jorge Lorenzo, Position: DNF
“I’m a little bit sad for this crash, not for the championship but for my mistake; I didn’t expect this kind of mistake from myself. It was totally my fault, I miscalculated the distance off the line and Nicky braked earlier than I was expecting and I hit him. I thought I could save it but my front brake was broken and so when I tried to brake for the corner I couldn’t and the rear made a big slide. I have a bit of damage to my nose and my finger but it could have been a lot worse. This is what happens in racing and, although I am disappointed about the race, the most important thing is that I am not badly injured. I want to say sorry to Nicky because I ruined his race today. As for the points, the title was a long shot anyway and now I just want to look forward to the final two races.”

Davide Brivio, Team Manager
“This has been a very important day for our championship because now we’re leaving with a lead of 38 points. It is a pity that Lorenzo crashed, because who knows what kind of race this could have been with him in it as well? Valentino today rode with a big heart and a lot of fight, trying to win the race but also making sure he didn’t lose these twenty points. He tried hard but never went over the top. The team did a great job as well this weekend to make this possible and we have to carry this same concentration and motivation forward to Sepang next weekend, where we will be aiming for the maximum possible result.”

Daniele Romagnoli, Team Manager
“For sure we weren’t expecting a result like this, even after such a difficult weekend! We have found a lot more problems here than we were expecting but in the end the team were able to make a good step for warm-up and another improvement for the race, so we missed a chance to fight for the podium today. It just wasn’t to be this weekend. The championship is basically finished for us now but we will look forward to the last two races and continue as we were before. At the end of the day, we’re lucky that Jorge didn’t pick up worse injuries in a crash like this so we will count ourselves lucky and move on to Malaysia.”

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Bridgestone

Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium. Rear: Hard, Extra Hard (asymmetric)

The fiftieth premier class win on Bridgestone tyres came after a head-to-head shootout between the only two riders to have won World Championship titles using Bridgestone tyres. Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner triumphed over Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi after a race-long battle. Both riders were using the softer front and rear Bridgestone slicks as they pushed each other to within 0.03seconds of the circuit lap record, and mid-race the duo were separated by less than one tenth of a second.

The track conditions were cooler than they were during yesterday’s qualifying session, and every rider except the Suzuki Team pairing used the softer Bridgestone slicks front and rear. Only Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen mixed a soft compound front with the extra hard compound rear.

Whilst the pace of Stoner and Rossi saw them run away from the rest of the pack, the competition in the midfield was much closer with a close four-way battle for sixth that was eventually won by Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso.

Hiroshi Yasukawa – Director, Bridgestone Corporation:
“I’d like to congratulate Casey and the Ducati Team for their victory here in Australia today and for marking the 50th win on our tyres. It is apt that Casey took this win as it was he who took the first World Championship on our tyres in 2007. We are proud to have achieved this milestone, and whilst this is the first of three years for us as the Official Tyre Supplier, it is important to note that almost three quarters of these victories came in the tyre competition era, and that it was our success and the performance of our tyres that saw us become the sole supplier. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dorna and the FIM for their continued support, and wish each MotoGP team and rider the greatest success for the remainder of this season and beyond.”

Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department:
“It was a hard race for the tyres because Casey and Valentino were pushing very hard until the chequered and the battle between them was faster than I expected. We can see from the laptimes that the softer option front and rear slicks performed well as even though the conditions were cooler this year than last, the race time was just 0.008seconds slower
which demonstrates their good consistency and the fastest lap was just 0.026seconds from the lap record. I am very happy to celebrate the 50th win on our tyres using the new specification rear tyres we developed for Phillip Island.”

Casey Stoner – Ducati Team – Race Winner:
“After the season we’ve had, to come back in Portugal and almost have the pace to win was good but here I am really happy; I enjoyed every lap! We were the ones who converted everyone to Bridgestone so to mark the 50th win is a nice feeling. Everyone was happy with what they had until we came along and did what we did and all of a sudden everyone wanted Bridgestone tyres so it was quite a proud moment for us. The fact that Bridgestone have listened to what we’ve said and made changes from that has been fantastic. Three wins from three years here is also a nice way to end the season!”

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MotoGP

Casey Stoner’s dominance of his home circuit continued on Sunday as the Australian won at Phillip Island for the third year in a row, leading Valentino Rossi over the finish line by a margin of 1.935s.

In his second Grand Prix back after a three-race absence, the 24 year-old celebrated his birthday weekend with an impressive win from pole position, his third race victory of the season, which took him to third in the championship standings.

A frustrating weekend for Jorge Lorenzo was compounded when the Spaniard crashed out at turn one of the first lap after touching bikes with Stoner’s Ducati team-mate Nicky Hayden. Having struggled through the practice sessions and qualifying with both rear-grip issues and illness, Lorenzo was unable to continue after sliding off, although Hayden climbed back aboard his Desmosedici GP9 to finish 15th.

Rossi’s second place opened his lead at the top of the championship to 38 points over Fiat Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo with two races remaining, after it had been cut down to 18 following the latter’s win last time out at Estoril.

Dani Pedrosa secured his first podium at the circuit in the MotoGP class but came in 22.618s adrift of Rossi, while Alex de Angelis’ fine weekend was completed with a fourth-placed classification.

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) took fifth spot from fifth on the grid, and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) overcame his worst qualifying position since Germany – tenth – to take sixth place.

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

Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) came in twelfth after being demoted to the back of the grid after his team was penalised for using an extra engine outside its allocation.

250cc

Marco Simoncelli narrowed the gap on Hiroshi Aoyama in the 250cc FIM World Championship to 12 points with victory, as the Japanese rider was classified in seventh position when the race was red flagged.

Roberto Locatelli’s high-side crash which resulted in him lying stricken on the track brought the action to a premature end, with Simoncelli leading, Álvaro Bautista having already crashed when in second place earlier in the race, and Aoyama having risen to fourth from seventh on the last completed lap.

Simoncelli assumed the lead early on and maintained it for the remainder of the race until the red flag on the 18th lap, with Héctor Barberá in second and Raffaele de Rosa in third.

Mattia Pasini crashed out with 17 laps remaining to bring to an end a difficult weekend which saw him suffer a similar fate in qualifying, and a crash for Bautista took him out of the picture. On the next lap Jules Cluzel’s spill saw Aoyama climb to fourth, and the drama intensified with Locatelli’s spill at MG Corner which left the rider with a bruised lower back.

That handed Simoncelli the race victory – the 200th for an Italian rider in the 250cc class – with Cluzel taking fourth despite his crash. Mike di Meglio finished fifth, and Karel Abraham’s sixth spot was the Czech’s best-ever race result.

125cc

Julián Simón was crowned the 2009 World Champion as the Spaniard clinched victory on the final lap of the 125cc race, vindicating his decision to take the step down from 250cc for this season.

An excitingly tight early race ensued as a group of seven riders which included Simón, his Bancaja Aspar team-mate Bradley Smith, Nico Terol, Pol Espargaró and Simone Corsi – starting on the front row for the first time in 2009 – all jostled closely for position.

With four laps remaining there was just under a full second between Simón – at this point in second position – and Corsi in third, with the Spaniard seemingly happy to wait until the final lap to launch his bid for the victory which would deliver the title.

He did so, and with Smith forced wide in a turn Simón attacked on the inside to stream through and take victory, while the Brit secured his fourth successive podium finish.

Sandro Cortese (Ajo Interwetten) completed the podium, whilst Espargaró finished fourth from pole position. Corsi ended the race in fifth spot with Nico Terol (Jack & Jones) taking sixth.

The FIM MotoGP World Championship now immediately heads to South East Asia for the Shell Advance Malaysian Grand Prix next weekend (23rd-25th October 2009).

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Monster Yamaha Tech 3

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team duo Colin Edwards and James Toseland had a day of contrasting fortunes at the spectacular Phillip Island circuit in Australia this afternoon.

Starting from fifth on the grid for the fifth successive race, Edwards made a slow getaway off the line and dropped down to ninth on the first lap in front of 50,094 fans. The Texan then produced a magnificent exhibition in overtaking to first pass Andrea Dovizioso on lap four. Setting a fast pace after pre-race tweaks with the set-up of his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 helped with stability and agility, the 35-year-old then superbly passed Mika Kallio, Toni Elias and Ran dy de Puniet in quick succession on lap five.

Edwards then set about closing the gap on Alex de Angelis in fourth position, but despite consistently lapping faster than the San Marino rider throughout the race, his hard challenge was in vain. His seventh top six finish of 2009 though boosted his hopes of overhauling Dovizioso for fifth place in the championship standings. With just two races remaining, Edwards is just seven points behind the Italian.

It was a frustrating afternoon for British rider Toseland, who had started the 27-lap race optimistic of claiming a second successive top six finish at Phillip Island.

Toseland was locked in the intense battle for fifth place when Race Direction imposed a ride through penalty after the 28-year-old was adjudged to have jumped the start. Toseland entered the pits on lap 10 and gallantly rode a hard pace in the second half of t he race to almost fight his way back into a creditable 13th place, finishing just 0.034s behind Gabor Talmacsi.

Colin Edwards 5th – 145 points:
“I’ll hold my hands up and say I really messed up the start. I pretty much fell asleep and when the lights went out, I was just sat there. That left me down in ninth place but the pace was pretty quick in the low 31s and I was able to pick off a few of them quite quickly. I knew if I didn’t get my head down then I’d be towing them around because of how you can slipstream at this track. I never relented and my pace was pretty hot, and thankfully it wasn’t too difficult for me to make a break from the pack. I saw de Angelis in front of me and I tried everything I could to get close to him. I’m tired of finishing fifth, so I gave it everything I had. But the start cost me fourth and some precious points. Towards the end of the race I star ted to lose some side grip and I couldn’t do anything more to try and put pressure on de Angelis. I beat Dovizioso again which is all I can do to try and get fifth in the championship. I really want that fifth to reward all my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3. They’ve been great and I’ll be giving it my all for them in the last two races.”

James Toseland 14th – 87 points:
“I’m really struggling to describe how I feel right now. All I can say is I feel the jump start decision was incredibly harsh and I am extremely disappointed. I have looked at the start on TV and I can’t see I’ve done anything wrong. It is hard for me to take but I’ve got to try and put it behind me as soon as possible and aim for a strong result in Sepang next weekend. I was confident of a strong race today and I was latched onto the back of the group fighting for fifth. I felt my pace was strong enough to hav e put up a strong fight for a positive result, but the ride through ended all that. I want to thank all my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 for all their hard work and effort this weekend. They have been brilliant as always and I’m not going to let this disappointment stop me from giving my all to finish this season on a high at the last two races.”

Herve Poncharal – Team Manager:
“It was another very strong weekend from Colin and he rode another hard race. Had he made a better start then I’m convinced he would have been able to fight with de Angelis for fourth place. His lap times were better than Alex for most of the race and it would have been a good battle. Unfortunately we only gained one point on Dovizioso, but Colin is still fighting hard for fifth in the championship and there is still a lot to fight for. With James, I understand his frustration. I went with him to Race Direction to look at the start and honestly speaking, it was a very marginal decision. We have to respect the decision of Race Direction and I am convinced that James will bounce back strongly in Malaysia next weekend.”

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Repsol Honda

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa took his third podium finish in successive races today as the spectacular Phillip Island circuit hosted the Australian Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Spaniard rocketed from third place on the grid into an early lead and repelled a first lap assault from Casey Stoner, quickly re-passing the Australian after he’d overtaken into the Honda hairpin. Pedrosa led at the end of lap one, but was powerless to prevent Stoner and then Valentino Rossi from coming past and opening up a gap.

After this, Pedrosa was out on his own, comfortably opening the gap to fourth place and eventually coming home to record his ninth podium finish of the season. His performance was all the more impressive in the light of his high-speed crash in qualifying yesterday which left him uninjured but bruised and in some discomfort. Stoner went on to win today’s race and overtook Pedrosa for third place in the world championship, a situation Pedrosa will try to reverse in a week’s time in Malaysia.

Andrea Dovizioso battled to a competitive sixth place and was able to match Pedrosa’s pace for the closing stages of today’s 27-lap race. From tenth position on the grid, the Italian was involved in a seven-way scrap for fifth place in the opening laps, and it was a battle that cost him some time as he worked his way to the head of the group. Once up to sixth place, Dovizioso’s target was to close the gap on points rival Colin Edwards ahead of him. Although Dovi proceeded to take chunks out of the five-second gap to the Texan, he ran out of laps and came home 2.5s adrift. The result means the Italian retains fifth in the championship, seven points ahead of Edwards.

The MotoGP paddock now flies immediately to Malaysia for the penultimate race of the season, which takes place next weekend at the popular (and hot) Sepang circuit.

Dani Pedrosa, 3rd:
“It’s good to be on the podium again, especially after the crash in qualifying yesterday, so I’m happy about that. I pushed myself to the maximum in the race and we led for a short while from the start. Actually it’s a shame they don’t award points for getting the holeshot! Casey and Valentino were going superfast today and I just couldn’t keep pace with them once they came past. From then on I just tried to keep my rhythm going and tried not to make any mistakes.  It’s a little frustrating of course not to be able to fight at the front, but considering the crash yesterday this result was OK and I’d like to say thanks to the team because they worked hard this weekend. The next race is in Malaysia and it’s a track that I like, so I’m looking forward to next weekend and I hope we can get another strong result.”

Andrea Dovizioso, 6th:
“In the second half of the race my feeling on the machine improved and this was probably the highlight of my weekend here. Once I was clear of the battle for sixth I was able to ride at a good pace and realistically I think I could have fought with De Angelis and Edwards in this race. It’s just a shame that I lost time starting from tenth and then fighting with Kallio, De Puniet and Elias – which is what I feared might happen. I cannot be happy with the 6th position but I have to consider the whole weekend and the set-up issues we experienced in the practice sessions and also my physical condition which wasn’t perfect this weekend. Still, I felt good at the end of the race, so I’m looking forward to Malaysia with confidence.”

Kazuhiko Yamano – Repsol Honda Team Manager:
“Dani is on the podium again and he did a very good job to come back from his crash yesterday and put in such a performance – leading the race from the start. Of course the whole team wants to be fighting for victories and so we will continue to work very hard towards this. Andrea had a tough Australian Grand Prix and so sixth place represents a good performance from him. He was not feeling well for the whole weekend, but fought hard and was very determined in the race. Now we go to Malaysia which is another track we know well from testing and we’ll push to the maximum again there.”

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MotoGP

Julián Simón- 2009 125cc World Champion:

Julián Simón started to ride off-road when he was only two, initially in minicross, and he moved to motocross when he was five. At 10 he became the Junior Spanish Champion and made the switch to road racing at 12. Winner of the 50cc and 125cc Aprilia Cups in 2000, he continued his career in the Spanish Championship before making his GP debut in 2003 with Malaguti.

His first season proved lacklustre, but a steady 2004 on Angaia Racing’s kitted-Honda saw him close the season in 14th place overall. This earned Simon a highly-coveted ride with the Red Bull KTM team. He achieved a final 125 World Championship position of seventh in 2005, the season in which he took his first GP victory at Donington Park in a crash-marred wet race.

Having finished ninth in 2006, Simón moved up to the 250 class under the tutelage of Alberto Puig in the Repsol Honda team for 2007. Simon finished in the top ten, but after a second season in the quarter-litre category without a podium appearance (on KTM machinery in 2008), the Spaniard opted to drop back into the 125cc ranks for the 2009 season to join the Bancaja Aspar team.

Simón’s form in pre-season boded well for the year ahead, fastest in many of the practice outings, which he then backed up with pole in the first qualifying session of the season at Qatar. Second in the shortened race, he was leading when the red flag came out, and has continued to be a front runner every single race weekend of 2009.

He has celebrated victory in five races (France, Germany, Britain, San Marino and Australia) with the only mishaps of the year a crash from second place in Jerez, the now infamous pit-board incident in Catalunya when he thought the race had finished a lap before the end and a crash at Portugal which resulted in a twelfth place finish. He has had a further five podium finishes and celebrates his first World Championship with two rounds to spare.

Personal Data
Date of birth: 03/04/1987 (22 years)
Place of birth: Villacañas (Spain)

Some facts about Simon’s achievement
• Simón is the seventh Spanish rider to win the 125cc world title, joining: Ángel Nieto (1971/72/79/81/82/83/84), Jorge Martínez (1988), Àlex Crivillé (1989), Emilio Alzamora (1999), Dani Pedrosa (2003) and Álvaro Bautista (2006).

• He is the first rider since Roberto Locatelli in 2000 to win the 125cc world title having previously competed as a full-time rider in the 250cc class.

• In 2009 Simon has had six poles and five race wins. Prior to the start of this season Simon had never started from pole and had won only one Grand Prix; in the wet at Donington Park in 2005.

• His seventh place on the grid in France was the only time this year that Simon has failed to qualify on the front row.

• His win at Donington this year was the 100th Grand Prix victory for Aspar Martinez as rider and team manager.

• He has finished on the podium ten times during 2009 after having had only two podium finishes in the 95 GP races he had competed in before the start of this year.

Career Data

First Grand Prix: SPA – 2002 (in 125cc)
First Pole Position: QAT – 2009 (in 125cc)
First Podium: GBR – 2005 (in 125cc)
First GP Victory: GBR – 2005 (in 125cc)
Grand Prix Starts: 109 (76 in 125cc and 33 in 250cc)
Grand Prix Victories: 6 (in 125cc)
Podiums: 12 (in 125cc)
Pole Positions: 5 (in 125cc)
Race Fastest Laps: 6 (in 125cc)
World Championship Wins: 1 – 125cc 2009
2009 Total Points: 239

*data correct at 18/10/2009
(Iveco Australian Grand Prix)