Australian GP. Races

Fonsi Nieto, 250 cc Vice World Champion
Melandri wins the race and becomes World Champion. Nieto finishes second and Elias fifth. Pedrosa gets off the fight for the title with his fifth place.
 Fonsi Nieto tried absolutely everything today to hinder Melandri from becoming World Champion. In a breathtaking race starred by Melandri and Nieto who after a couple of laps had already left the rest of the riders two seconds behind, both riders have shown their best cards and quality. It’s been a clean but very even race; Fonsi tried to slow down the race every time he took over the lead, trying to carry out his tactics of letting other riders get between them, and Melandri pushed hard as soon as he got back the lead. And that’s he way they reached the last lap of the race: should Melandri win, he would become World Champion, if Nieto was the winner, we would have to wait until Valencia to know who’s the new Champion. In a superb last lap with both riders constantly swapping positions, Melandri managed to cross the finish line first with an advantage of only 7 thousands of a second. Toni Elias, still suffering from the crash on Saturday and the flu, finished fifth. Alexander Barros started the race setting a very high pace in the MotoGP class, a pace that only Rossi was able to keep, despite the almost two seconds of advantage taken by the Brazilian. Bit by bit, the Repsol Honda Team rider reduced the gap between them until getting right behind Barros’ tyre. The last fifteen laps have been a competition between both Honda riders, while in the back, fighting for the third step of the podium were, Tohru Ukawa, Vd Goorbergh and Kato who gave themselves no peace. In a spectacular last lap, Barros made a mistake trying to overtake Rossi, getting off the track and rejoining the race finishing second behind a victorious Valentino Rossi. The third place was for Tohru Ukawa who, with this result and Biaggi’s sixth place sets himself only one point behind the Italian, so that both riders will have to fight for the vice championship in Valencia. In the 125cc Dani Pedrosa had to say goodbye to the fight for the title at the Australian circuit of Phillip Island. Six riders left the rest of the pack behind them after only a couple of laps: Poggiali, Vincent, Cecchinello, Nieto, Pedrosa and Sanna. The race has been a constant swap of positions between the three title contenders and the three guests. On the last laps, Poggiali, Cecchinello and Nieto managed to take a small advantage over the rest, what allowed them to cross the finish line in that order. With Poggiali first, Vincent saw himself relegated to fourth place and Pedrosa to fifth, what left him without any chance to fight for the Championship title. The title will be decided between Vincent and Poggiali in Valencia. And while Pedrosa had to see how his hope to go to Valencia with chances to fight for the title were slipping out of his hands, his team-mate Joan Olivé made a good start, allowing him to make up positions until the ninth final place after in intense group race.