Stoner wins world championship!

Birthday presents don’t come much bigger than a world championship. Add in victory in your home Grand Prix – for the fifth year in a row – and you have some idea of the celebrations Casey Stoner sparked at Phillip Island on Sunday.

Stoner went into the third-last race of the season with a 40pt lead over outgoing world champion Jorge Lorenzo, but when the Yamaha ace withdrew after losing part of a finger in the morning warm-up the 26-year-old Australian’s job was only made easier.

In fact neither factory Yamaha took the start as American Ben Spies, winner at Assen earlier this year, decided a blow to the head in a qualifying crash had left him with diminished powers of concentration that made racing too dangerous.

With Australian Damian Cudlin also unable to race following his own high-side off the Aspar Ducati on Saturday, the 14-rider field for the final 800cc Australian Grand Prix was the smallest to start the premier-class event in its Phillip Island history.

Those weren’t the statistics that concerned Stoner. He needed only to finish in the top six to clinch his second title, but a brilliant start was the launching pad for his 32nd premier class victory, 2.210 seconds ahead of Marco Simoncelli, whose privateer Honda came out on top in a thrilling late duel with Andrea Dovizioso on the second factory bike.

Even the threat of rain with 10 laps remaining couldn’t halt Stoner’s march, and when Simoncelli briefly closed the gap the Australian comfortably responded. After starting from pole he completed the hat-trick with the race’s fastest lap, a 1m30.629s on the third lap.

Just off the podium was the third factory Honda of Dani Pedrosa, a full 10 seconds adrift, with Texan Colin Edwards fifth on the Tech 3 Yamaha. Randy de Puniet was sixth on the Pramac Ducati ahead of works rider Nicky Hayden.

With Toni Elias on the LCR Honda eight, Loris Capirossi, having his final ride here in his 22nd world championship season, was ninth. Tenth and last to finish was Karel Abraham on the Cardio Ducati.

The man who once owned the Bass Strait track, Valentino Rossi, crashed out at turn 10 at the halfway mark. Alvaro Bautista’s Suzuki and Simoncelli’s teammate Hiroshi Aoyama were late fallers, with Cal Crutchlow the other non-finisher on the second Tech 3 Yamaha.

Stoner, winner for the last four years on a Ducati, has now given Honda its first Island victory in the five years of the 800cc class.

The first and only Honda rider to win the MotoGP title in the 800cc era – this year being the last of the engine capacity before an increase to a 1000cc limit in 2012 – Stoner adds to his 2007 title which came in Ducati colours.
In taking the 2011 crown Stoner also becomes only the fifth rider to have won premier class titles with two different manufacturers, the others being Giacomo Agostini, Valentino Rossi, Geoff Duke and Eddie Lawson.

Big things were heralded for Stoner when, as a 15 year-old, he made his World Championship debut as a 125cc wildcard at Donington Park in 2001. Having graduated through the same academy system that also produced his future factory Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa, Stoner fully capitalised on the bold move made by his family of moving to Europe to further his fledgling career.

A full time Grand Prix career started in the 250cc category under Lucio Cecchinello’s guidance in 2002, but it was a step down to the 125cc class the following season that saw Stoner’s talent begin to fully flourish with four podiums and a first victory in the final round of the campaign. In 2004 he challenged for the title, taking KTM’s first ever Grand Prix win and ending the season fifth overall.

A step back up to 250s with Cecchinello’s team in 2005 produced a thrilling battle with Pedrosa for the title as Stoner amassed five wins on the Aprilia, and the next year he and the LCR team debuted in the premier MotoGP class on board a Honda as the Australian displayed flashes of brilliance – which included a pole position in only his second race at Qatar and second place in Turkey – mixed with a few disappointing crashes, all part of the learning experience. He had shown enough to encourage Ducati to make an offer to ride on their factory team the next season, and what followed was a stunning campaign.

A maiden MotoGP victory in the first race of 2007 at Qatar was a self-confessed surprise for both rider and team, but once he followed this up with wins at Turkey and China a title challenge became a more than realistic target.
His standout performance at Catalunya, where he battled toe-to-toe with five-time champion Valentino Rossi will go down as one of the great races in history, whilst he dominated the mid-season with pole-to-flag victories at three consecutive races at Laguna Seca, Brno and Misano. Stoner went on to secure the title with four rounds to spare, and ended 2007 with a total of 10 wins, 14 podiums and 5 poles.

Defending his title in 2008, Stoner fought rival Rossi intensely as the pair crossed swords on a number of occasions, their duel at Laguna Seca still being talked about as one of the greatest battles of recent years, and the Australian eventually ended the season runner-up to his Italian adversary despite taking 6 wins and 9 poles in a strong second campaign on the Desmosedici.

2009 did not run a smooth course for Stoner, a mid-season three-race break due to fatigue uncovered a lactose intolerance that had affected his physical condition on the bike, and he ended the season 4th overall in the standings. 2010 was to prove not much easier as he took only three wins – all in the final third of the season – on an increasingly hard to tame Desmosedici. By that stage it had already been announced that Stoner would ride for the factory Repsol Honda team in 2011.

The switch has proved a resounding success as the 2007 World Champion displayed the same kind of dominant form that delivered him his first title four years earlier. Pole position and victory in the opening round in Qatar was a sign of things to come, and by the time Stoner won the race in Phillip Island to clinch the title with two more rounds to spare he had already taken nine victories. Added to that race success has been an incredible consistency, which has seen him finish off the podium just once – in the second round at Jerez where he crashed out through no fault of his own.

Winning his home race in Australia for a fifth consecutive season handed Stoner not only his second World title, but his 32nd career MotoGP victory, as he took victory from another pole position – his 11th of the season; this represents a new record for the most poles in one season in the MotoGP four-stroke era.

Some facts about Casey Stoner’s achievement

Alex de Angelis (Motobi) has won his second successive Moto2 IVECO Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix after a spectacular race-long battle with Stefan Bradl (Kalex) over 25 laps at Phillip Island on Sunday.

The 27-year-old San Marino rider, who qualified on pole, passed the German into Turn 1 on the final lap to lead for the first time in the race, the riders touching as they entered Turn 2. Bradl momentarily lost momentum, allowing de Angelis to escape to a lead of several bike lengths and eventually win by 1.358secs.

Bradl, narrowly denied his first win since the British Grand Prix in June, reclaimed the championship lead from Marc Marquez (Suter), but the Spaniard produced one of the great rides in recent Phillip Island memory to finish third after starting from 38th and last place on the grid.

Marquez had a minute added to his qualifying time after an incident in Friday practice that left Thai rider Ratthapark Wilairot in hospital with back and knee injuries, but was in electrifying form as he scythed his way through the pack.

The 18-year-old reigning 125cc world champion made up a staggering 22 positions on the opening lap alone, and was inside the top 10 by lap five. Despite fading tyres in the final laps, Marquez edged Italian Claudio Corti (Suter) by 0.113secs for third place, denying the Italian a maiden world championship podium finish.

“What Marc has done is incredible. It leaves you speechless. Today it was inconceivable but the race for the title is on,” said Emilio Alzamora, the 1999 125cc world champion who now guides his young compatriot’s career.

De Angelis made the best of the start into Turn 1 but ran wide into Turn 2, allowing Scott Redding (Suter) through into the lead. The Briton swapped the lead with Spaniard Pol Espargaro (FTR) in the opening laps before Bradl, who had qualified eighth, swept into the lead down the start-finish straight on lap five.

After a frantic first 10 laps, Bradl and de Angelis cleared away at the front, with the Motobi rider always looking to have Bradl’s pace covered despite the German keeping his nose in front.

The margin sat at three-tenths of a second for much of the second half of the race, but de Angelis dramatically narrowed the gap on the penultimate lap before setting up his race-winning move on the final tour, with Bradl fortunate to stay aboard his Kalex machine as the San Marino rider forced his way into the lead with just 10 corners remaining.

Bradl, who lost the series lead for the first time all season after the Japanese Grand Prix a fortnight ago, now has 254 points with races in Malaysia and Valencia remaining, and leads Marquez by three points. Andrea Iannone (Suter), who finished eighth in Sunday’s race, retains third in the championship with 165 points, while de Angelis (157 points) and Simone Corsi (127) round out the top five.

125cc: Cortese gets the gong

It took Sandro Cortese 109 starts to win his first world championship race, but the 21-year-old German has now made it two from six by winning a shortened 125cc race at the 2011 IVECO Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

Rain threatened to mar the small bikes’ final appearance at the Bass Strait circuit before being replaced by the Moto3 formula next year, but the race got under way 10 minutes late with most of the field on dry-weather tyres.

While Jonas Folger failed to take up his grid position on the outside of the front row, Frenchman Alexis Masbou rocketed through from the fifth row to put his KTM in the lead by the time they got to Siberia.

But Masbou was quickly rounded up by Adrian Martin, the Spanish Aprilia rider opening up a four-second lead within five of the scheduled 23 laps.

Cortese, quick all weekend on the Intact Racing Aprilia, found his feet and was ahead by the end of lap six, cruising away from the field to win by 13.572 seconds from 20-year-old Spaniard Louis Salom on his RW Racing Aprilia.

The race was brought to a premature halt when the rain set in, the result being declared at the 20-lap mark.
“The first part of the race was completely wet,” said Cortese, who also set the race’s fastest lap of 1m40.726s, an average speed of 159.687km/h.

“So I said okay, let’s take it step by step and try to have a confident feel for the bike. I had a very good set-up from the beginning so a big thanks to the team – finally we are back on the top step of the podium!”

Salom matched his own previous best result after winning a superb duel with Johann Zarco, the Frenchman who won for the first time in Japan two weeks ago and started from his second successive pole position on the Avant-AirAsia-Ajo Derbi.

With championship leader Nico Terol unable to find early pace and finishing in sixth place, the Spaniard now leads Zarco by 25 points with two races remaining. Zarco has now been on the podium in the last four races and seven of the last eight.

Zarco’s teammate Efren Vazquez was fourth ahead of Alberto Moncayo.

Australian wildcard Nicky Diles was left frustrated when his Aprilia overheated in the early laps, forcing him in before the bike seized up, and although he got back out on track the young Victorian felt he was getting in quicker riders’ way and decided to retire.