2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix

  2008 Australian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 16 of 18 races in the 2008 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	5 October 2008
Official name	Australian Grand Prix
Location	Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.448 km (2.764 mi)
MotoGP
Pole position
Rider	Casey Stoner
Time	1:28.665
Fastest lap
Rider	Nicky Hayden
Time	1:30.059
Podium
First	Casey Stoner
Second	Valentino Rossi
Third	Nicky Hayden
250 cc
Pole position
Rider	Marco Simoncelli
Time	1:32.075
Fastest lap
Rider	Alvaro Bautista
Time	1:32.710
Podium
First	Marco Simoncelli
Second	Alvaro Bautista
Third	Mika Kallio
125 cc
Pole position
Rider	Mike Di Meglio
Time	1:37.553
Fastest lap
Rider	Stefan Bradl
Time	1:37.908
Podium
First	Mike Di Meglio
Second	Stefan Bradl
Third	Gábor Talmácsi

The 2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix was the sixteenth round of the 2008 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 3–5 October 2008 at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

Race report

The premier class MotoGP race was won by Casey Stoner from pole position. Stoner rode a lights to flag victory ahead of a fast and charging Valentino Rossi who started the race from 12th position on the grid. Nicky Hayden rounded out the podium finishing in a respectable third place.

In the early stages of the race, Stoner and Hayden had a battle that lasted many laps with the two pulling away from the chasing pack, trading fast laps between them. Casey Stoner gradually began to pull away as Hayden's tyres appeared to wear out slightly. Meanwhile Rossi was charging through the midfield, getting up to 8th position after only the first lap. Rossi quickly disposed of a number of riders in the first few laps, but lost vital time while attempting to overtake his teammate Jorge Lorenzo and former SBK champion James Toseland. Rossi was setting fast lap times but his entertaining battle with these two riders meant he was losing time, and all chances of catching Stoner and Hayden who were riding off into the distance were slowly fading.

After losing the front end going in MG Corner just after Lukey Heights, Rossi lost yet more time. After a few laps he managed to get into the tow behind Toseland and past him going into the long sweeping turn 1. Toseland had no reply and Rossi had his eyes firmly set on catching the leaders. Rossi caught Hayden with only 2 laps to go, but Stoner was simply too far already to be challenged for the win. By this stage of the race, Hayden's rear tyre was very worn as he had not conserved it in the early stages of the race. Rossi pulled a textbook move going into turn 1 on the last lap, Hayden lost ground from here and could not get close enough to attempt to retake second place.

MotoGP classification

Pos	No	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	1	Casey Stoner	Ducati	27	40:56.643	1	25
2	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	27	+6.504	12	20
3	69	Nicky Hayden	Honda	27	+7.205	3	16
4	48	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	27	+11.500	2	13
5	56	Shinya Nakano	Honda	27	+11.914	9	11
6	52	James Toseland	Yamaha	27	+12.243	5	10
7	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Honda	27	+12.780	8	9
8	5	Colin Edwards	Yamaha	27	+25.920	7	8
9	14	Randy de Puniet	Honda	27	+26.037	4	7
10	65	Loris Capirossi	Suzuki	27	+26.799	11	6
11	24	Toni Elias	Ducati	27	+27.027	13	5
12	13	Anthony West	Kawasaki	27	+47.808	18	4
13	21	John Hopkins	Kawasaki	27	+48.333	16	3
14	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Ducati	27	+48.899	14	2
15	7	Chris Vermeulen	Suzuki	27	+48.935	15	1
16	33	Marco Melandri	Ducati	27	+1:11.767	17
Ret	15	Alex de Angelis	Honda	0	Accident	10
Ret	2	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	0	Accident	6

250 cc classification

Pos	No	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	58	Marco Simoncelli	Gilera	25	39:02.553	1	25
2	19	Álvaro Bautista	Aprilia	25	+0.223	3	20
3	36	Mika Kallio	KTM	25	+14.450	2	16
4	60	Julian Simon	KTM	25	+14.478	6	13
5	6	Alex Debon	Aprilia	25	+26.226	8	11
6	15	Roberto Locatelli	Gilera	25	+26.392	11	10
7	72	Yuki Takahashi	Honda	25	+26.434	7	9
8	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	25	+40.546	9	8
9	14	Ratthapark Wilairot	Honda	25	+1:00.219	12	7
10	32	Fabrizio Lai	Gilera	25	+1:20.825	13	6
11	17	Karel Abraham	Aprilia	25	+1:22.802	17	5
12	25	Alex Baldolini	Aprilia	25	+1:22.864	18	4
13	10	Imre Toth	Aprilia	25	+1:23.995	16	3
14	52	Lukas Pesek	Aprilia	25	+1:39.740	14	2
15	35	Simone Grotzkyj	Gilera	24	+1 Lap	21	1
16	92	Daniel Arcas	Honda	24	+1 Lap	20
17	45	Doni Tata Pradita	Yamaha	24	+1 Lap	22
Ret	4	Hiroshi Aoyama	KTM	15	Retirement	4
Ret	75	Mattia Pasini	Aprilia	15	Accident	10
Ret	55	Héctor Faubel	Aprilia	4	Accident	5
Ret	90	Federico Sandi	Aprilia	1	Accident	15
Ret	43	Manuel Hernandez	Aprilia	1	Retirement	19
DNQ	27	Stefano Bianco	Gilera
DNQ	89	Ho Wan Chow	Aprilia

125 cc classification

Pos	No	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	63	Mike Di Meglio	Derbi	23	37:55.589	1	25
2	17	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia	23	+10.255	3	20
3	1	Gábor Talmácsi	Aprilia	23	+13.106	9	16
4	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	23	+13.149	5	13
5	44	Pol Espargaró	Derbi	23	+26.796	16	11
6	11	Sandro Cortese	Aprilia	23	+27.123	6	10
7	12	Esteve Rabat	KTM	23	+27.181	18	9
8	24	Simone Corsi	Aprilia	23	+27.871	8	8
9	93	Marc Márquez	KTM	23	+28.287	12	7
10	45	Scott Redding	Aprilia	23	+35.087	11	6
11	7	Efrén Vázquez	Aprilia	23	+57.392	26	5
12	8	Lorenzo Zanetti	KTM	23	+57.413	20	4
13	22	Pablo Nieto	KTM	23	+57.451	17	3
14	6	Joan Olivé	Derbi	23	+57.539	19	2
15	21	Robin Lässer	Aprilia	23	+1:06.318	24	1
16	72	Marco Ravaioli	Aprilia	23	+1:06.320	30
17	26	Adrián Martín	Aprilia	23	+1:42.441	31
18	36	Cyril Carrillo	Honda	23	+1:42.455	32
19	28	Enrique Jerez	KTM	23	+1:43.792	33
20	91	Jed Metcher	Honda	22	+1 Lap	34
21	34	Randy Krummenacher	KTM	21	+2 Laps	21
Ret	38	Bradley Smith	Aprilia	21	Accident	2
Ret	48	Bastien Chesaux	Aprilia	14	Retirement	29
Ret	33	Sergio Gadea	Aprilia	13	Retirement	14
Ret	51	Stevie Bonsey	Aprilia	12	Retirement	13
Ret	70	Rhys Moller	Honda	10	Accident	35
Ret	16	Jules Cluzel	Loncin	8	Accident	28
Ret	46	Brad Gross	Yamaha	8	Retirement	36
Ret	55	Hugo van den Berg	Aprilia	7	Accident	22
Ret	95	Robert Mureşan	Aprilia	2	Accident	25
Ret	35	Raffaele De Rosa	KTM	2	Accident	7
Ret	5	Alexis Masbou	Loncin	1	Retirement	23
Ret	18	Nicolás Terol	Aprilia	1	Retirement	4
Ret	73	Takaaki Nakagami	Aprilia	0	Retirement	27
Ret	77	Dominique Aegerter	Derbi	0	Accident	10
DNS	99	Danny Webb	Aprilia			15
DNQ	60	Michael Ranseder	Aprilia
DNQ	92	Jake Horne	Honda
DNQ	32	Blake Leigh-Smith	Honda

Notes

• In the 125cc race Marc Márquez was given a 1 second penalty for elbowing Simone Corsi during an overtaking attempt.

References

Previous race: 2008 Japanese Grand Prix	FIM Grand Prix World Championship 2008 season	Next race: 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix
Previous race: 2007 Australian Grand Prix	Australian motorcycle Grand Prix	Next race: 2009 Australian Grand Prix