Stoner looking to run the table on 800cc era at Phillip Island

Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner hopes to celebrate his 26th birthday by winning the fifth and final race of the 800cc era in his home grand prix on the magnificent Phillip Island Circuit, where he has his first chance to clinch the 2011 MotoGP World Championship.

Stoner has won all four races in the 800cc era at Phillip Island and a fifth win would put him in the history books as the only rider to win all five 800cc races at one race track.

Only a fool would bet against Stoner, who’s had nearly a dream season on the Repsol Honda RC212V. Stoner has built a 40 point championship lead over Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) with stunning consistency. His season scorecard shows eight wins, nine pole positions, front row starts in all but one race, and podiums in every race that he’s finished. He’s been on the pole in his last three wins at Phillip Island, and in the past four races this season. And if he finishes the 16th round of the championship with at least a 50 point lead on Lorenzo, the title will return to Honda and Stoner, who won his first title in 2007, the first year of the 800s.

Stoner’s most recent pole came in the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, which he threatened to run off with. He was leading early in the race when a tank-slapper knocked the brake pads back, compromising his braking power and forcing him to run long at the end of the longest and fastest Motegi straightaway. After dropping to seventh, Stoner recovered to finish third in the race won by team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Pedrosa took the lead on the sixth of 27 laps when Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso served a ride-through penalty for jumping the start. Once in the lead, Pedrosa never wavered, racing to his third win of the year, only one less than his career-best four in 2010. Considering that he’s missed four races through injuries suffered through no fault of his own, it’s been an impressive year.

Injuries kept Pedrosa out of last year’s Australian Grand Prix one year after he finished on the podium. He also has a victory in the 250cc class from 2005.

Now completely healthy, Pedrosa is in a championship battle with team-mate Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V). Heading to Australia, Dovi leads Pedrosa by a single point, 196 to 195, with only three races remaining.

Dovi has two podium finishes at Phillip Island a win in the 2004 125cc race and third in the 2007 250cc race. His best MotoGP finish of sixth came in 2009.

After serving his ride-through penalty at Motegi, Dovi dropped to tenth from where he launched an aggressive attack on the podium. Within eight laps he was in fourth place, but under the constant scrutiny of Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V), who also had to serve a ride-through penalty for jumping the start. Simoncelli attacked Dovi on the final lap and outraced him to the line by .141s.

The fourth place finish was the third in a row for Simoncelli, a streak that started two races after his first career MotoGP podium in the Czech Grand Prix. Simoncelli won the final two 250cc races at Phillip Island before graduating to the MotoGP class in 2010. His rookie season qualifying performance of fourth was his best to that point and he followed it up with a sixth place finish, equaling his best of the season, also to that point.

Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) finished on the Phillip Island podium in 2006 aboard his 250. In his rookie MotoGP season the Japanese rider finished 13th, a finish he hopes to improve on with another year’s experience.

Aoyama’s ninth place finish in his home grand prix at Motegi was his tenth top ten finish of the season.

Toni Elias (LCR Honda MotoGP) is hoping to bounce back from non-finishes in Aragon and Motegi as the MotoGP season winds down. The Spaniard was having his best ride of the year at Motegi, when he hit a bump and crashed out of sixth place late in the race. Elias is making his 12th visit to the island, where he had success as a younger rider. He raced his RS125 Honda to third place in the 2001 125cc Grand Prix, a race in which he finished two places in front of his current team owner, Lucio Cecchinello, four spots in front of Dani Pedrosa, and nine places ahead of a 16-year-old Casey Stoner, who was racing in only his second grand prix.

Ask almost any rider for his favourite race track and Phillip Island is likely to be top of the list for a number of reasons. The 4448m circuit southeast of Melbourne, and situated on the cliffs above the Bass Strait, is the fastest of the year, with an average race speed of over 175Km/h. The track has all of the elements of a great rider experience, with seven lefts and five rights that are a mixture of slow and fast, and made more challenging by elevation changes. The faster corners tend to be left-handers, including the sweeping turn onto the front straight, which put so much stress on the multi-compound tyres that they guaranteed that Phillip Island is the most abusive race on rear tyres with temperatures exceeding 120C. Tyres that are abused over 27 laps bring out the best in the riders, with rear end slides growing increasingly more impressive with every lap.

Phillip Island held its first grand prix in 1989 in a race won by Honda rider Wayne Gardner, the 1987 500cc World Champion who repeated his PI victory in 1990. Then came a gap of six years before the grand prix returned to the island as a permanent fixture on the calendar in 1997 in a race won by another 500cc World Champion, Alex Criville. Five-time 500cc World Champion Mick Doohan put his name in the record books by winning his home grand prix in 1998, after which it was won by Japanese rider Tady Okada, now a Honda test rider. Honda riders have won nine of the 16 races at Phillip Island, which has honoured its Australian heroes. The 900m front straight is named for Gardner and Doohan Corner, a 215Km/h right that begins the lap, for Queenslander Doohan. The wild card at Phillip Island is the weather, which can be wet and extreme, and the coldest of the year. Held in the Australian spring, the 2011 Australian Grand Prix was run in 15C weather, which was the highest of the weekend. Saturday qualifying was held in an 11C climate and the weekend began with the riders being greeted by a wet track and ambient and track temperatures of 10C, all factors which also contribute to tyre degradation.

The other hazard that awaits the riders is the wildlife. Many riders have stories of either hitting or dodging the sea gulls that fly in from the Bass Straits, into the path of 240bhp racing motorcycles.

HONDA MotoGP RIDER QUOTES

Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner says:

“Every year I look forward to going to Phillip Island. There are a few tracks I really enjoy, Mugello and Brno being the other tracks, so I'm excited to get to go there and see how the bike works. I love coming back home to race in Australia. It's always a lot of fun and we don't get to visit so often. As well as the track, the general atmosphere is incredible and I always enjoy the weekend as a whole and the fans are fantastic. Hopefully this weekend we can have a good race. I'm very disappointed after Japan, as we knew our potential. I want to go there and win the race, like I wanted to in Japan. The season has been fantastic so far and we'll be looking to continue this momentum. If we can top it off with a win in Phillip Island, my home grand prix, it would be a dream. It will be a long hard weekend, and there is still a lot of work to do to win the championship, but we're ready for it.”

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa says:

“I'm looking forward to going to Phillip Island as the circuit is very nice with many fast corners and a lot of sliding. The tyres play an important role there as the left side of the tyre gets used a lot and therefore durability is always crucial. Last year I tried to return to racing in Australia after my collarbone operation and I realised during practice that it would be impossible for me to finish the race. It was very hard for me to accept that I was not ready to race as a result of the injury and I had to return home empty-handed after a big effort. This year I would like to race in normal conditions and leave Australia with a good result.

Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso says:

"Phillip Island is a nice circuit set in a unique location. Last year the race was not as we expected as I had a technical problem that prevented me to fight for the podium. My target this time is to return on the podium and gain some points in order to retain the third position in the championship. Phillip Island is a demanding track and in the past I have struggled quiet a lot. The real issue is with the weather; the strong winds, rain and cold temperatures have often complicated the race. From a technical point of view the Australian track requires an aggressive riding style and an ability to make the bike turn whilst sliding. This is a very spectacular place, the setting by the ocean makes it special and the many fans are truly passionate. After the race weekend we had in Japan I'm looking forward to the Australian GP. Since my debut in the GPs in 2002 I have raced with Honda my whole career; for next year I have decided to take another challenge. But this is for 2012. Now I'm focused on these last three remaining GPs. I want to have some spectacular races and score good results for Honda, my team and all my fans.”

San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli says:

“After a bittersweet grand prix at Motegi I had the opportunity to test the RC213V, the bike I will be riding in Team San Carlo Honda Gresini colours next year. It was an amazing experience - 50 laps of pure adrenaline. The bike is so much fun and it keeps pulling in fifth and sixth gear. I gave some feedback to the HRC engineers that will hopefully be taken into consideration before the next test at Valencia. Before traveling down to Phillip Island I have had a short break on the exotic island of Boracay in the Philippines. It gave me the opportunity to relax and also work on the launch of my new website www.58marcosimoncelli.it Now I am feeling motivated and ready to fight again at Phillip Island. At Motegi I was able to see once again that I can fight with the guys at the front and, at a circuit where I won 250 races in 2008 and 2009, I want to show it. I was lacking some race consistency, but we have addressed that, and if it wasn't for the jump start at Motegi I would have been fighting for the podium, so that is something I want to make up for at Phillip Island.”

San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Hiroshi Aoyama says:

“I really wanted to score a positive result at my home grand prix, but I didn't manage it. We had some grip problems that prevented me from being consistent in the race, which was a real shame in front of my home fans. Now we go to Phillip Island, a circuit I love as long as the weather isn't too cold. If the conditions are good I enjoy riding there and I particularly like the atmosphere in Australia. I am desperate to have a full grand prix weekend where I show my true potential and hopefully along with the team we can create the right conditions to achieve it. We only have three races left so that is all the motivation we need.”

LCR Honda rider Toni Elias says:

“Phillip Island is a wonderful track and I love it there. It’s a great track to ride when you’ve got traction. Unfortunately, that has been our main problem at a lot of the circuits we’ve been to this season. We made progress with grip in Motegi, where I thought I would have my best finish of the year. I was in sixth place late in the race when I hit a bump and fell. You never want to crash, but that was a good race for me and the team and so we go to Phillip Island hoping to have the same speed.”