The rain and cold gave way to sun and higher temperatures today at the Australian circuit of Phillip Island. The wind stayed however but fortunately the three races were held in normal conditions.
The morning did not start especially well for Dani Pedrosa. At the end of the warm up, setting the sixth best time, the Repsol Honda Team rider had a setback when he was practising a start on one of the straights. He did an exaggerated wheelie and he fell off his bike, but he was not injured. In spite of the fall Pedrosa kept his cool and his concentration at the beginning of the race. After the first lap he was behind Stoner and Hayden, but the Spanish rider stayed close to his teammate Hayden on the first few laps whilst the American controlled Stoner who was setting a fast pace as leader. Rossi caught Pedrosa and got past him at the halfway stage, although a little later Pedrosa overtook him. On lap 13 Nicky Hayden was forced to retire with mechanical problems, he was third at the time behind Rossi and he had Pedrosa tucked in behind him. Meanwhile Rossi and Pedrosa fought for second place, Capirossi and his fast Ducati reached and overtook the two of them practically at the same time. In the end Pedrosa finished fourth with tyre problems just over a second behind Rossi, third. The race was won by the recently crowned World Champion and local hero Casey Stoner.In 250cc there were positive performances from the two Repsol Honda Team riders, Julián Simón and Shuhei Aoyama. The Japanese rider made a good start and was 7th at the end of the first lap, whilst Simón was 10th. Aoyama climbed little by little in the leading group whilst the overall championship leader, the Spaniard Lorenzo, got away from the rest of the group. The Repsol rider got into first position in the chasing group, second in the race, but on the 8th lap the steering on his Honda locked and he almsot fell. In the end he had to go off the track but was able to return in 11th position. In the end got a well-earned 8th place having overtaken three riders before the finish. At the same time that Shuhei lost time Simón made contact with the leading group and did some fantastic overtaking whilst braking. Julián got into a podium finish but in the end made a mistake when braking and trying to overtake Hiroshi Aoyama, he was 6th.A spectacular performance from Esteve Rabat in an exciting 125cc race, won by the Czech rider Lukas Pesek ahead of Olivé and Faubel. The Repsol rider, who started 11th on the grid, started well and on the first curve had moved up to 6th place. The Spaniard stayed among the leading group of eleven riders at some moments and he had to fight hard to stay there. As the race progressed Esteve even moved up to second position in a tight battle full of risky overtaking which in the end saw him finish fifth.His teammate Bradley Smith also started well, moving up to 8th after the first few curves. However, as he had hinted after the practice sessions, in a dry race he had the same problems as on the previous days and he could only watch as his rivals easily paased him. On one lap he lost five places and in the end the British youngster was 16th.
