PHILLIP ISLAND, Australia, (AFP) .- The Australian Casey Stoner (Ducati) won yesterday, at the Phillip Island circuit in front of his fans, the Australian Grand Prix of MotoGP, his fourth victory on this track, with which he will try to become World runner-up with two races remaining.
Spanish Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), who was proclaimed World Champion in Malaysia last week, finished second, followed by Italian Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), third, who is also aiming for second place overall.
Casey Stoner took the Australian Grand Prix.
The Italian, who started from the third row, traced the two riders of the French Tech 3 team, the Americans Colin Edwards and Ben Spies, before overtaking his compatriot Marco Simoncelli (Honda-Gresini) and then the American Nicky Hayden (Ducati), who finished fourth.
The great absentee of the day was the Spanish Dani Pedrosa (Honda), who after having participated in free trials and qualifying, decided to give up this Sunday’s race due to the problems he has had since he broke his collarbone in Japan.
Pedrosa, second overall, will have to work hard in the last two Grand Prix of the season, in Portugal and Valencia, to retain his second place, under pressure from Stoner and Rossi, at 23 and 31 points respectively.