Casey Stoner rode the wheels off his GP10 and was unstoppable at the Island, but the battle for third place on the podium was probably the most exciting part of the race, with Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi going at it for three quarters of the race.
Rossi who struggled all weekend, dropped from eighth to ninth on the first lap, but was able to claw back a third spot with Hayden always on his tail and in a final lap thriller, with Rossi and Hayden passing each other with three laps remaining, but the Italian put in one of his now famous last lap lunges at the Honda Hairpin to pass Hayden and hold him off to the line by just 0.
038s.
“To start eighth and finish third is not a bad result and, considering the trouble we had this weekend, we can be happy.
Today Casey was riding in a different sport and I want to say congratulations to him – the podium was the maximum for us but it was still a hard fight to get there”, said Valentino.
“We made some good changes to our set-up this morning and I knew I had a better chance, but we still lacked grip and the bike started to slide a lot after a bit.
I had great fun with Nicky at the end because in some places he was faster than me and I really had to push, but the podium here is so important for me and I couldn’t give it up easily.
This is my 13th podium in 14 years racing at Phillip Island and I am very proud of this record.
We have had three podiums in a row, including one win, and after this difficult season I am happy about this.
Today we won the Team title and I am happy for us all and for Yamaha.
”Nicky Hayden may have seemed slightly ‘upset’ when we saw him on TV sitting in his garage after the Phillip Island race, but as usual the American is always very matter-of-fact about his races: “It was a good, hard battle in the sunshine and I am very disappointed to have lost.
It would have been a lot cooler if it was for the win but fighting with Valentino Rossi for any position is never easy.
We made a few changes to the bike today but this morning in the warm-up I ran off the track and we missed the opportunity to try them, so it took me a few laps just to get used to the bike.
I have to say the team did a fantastic job because once I got going it felt great and I was able to recover the gap.
I don’t want to make excuses or be a cry baby and say ‘maybe if I did this or that it would be different’ because the bottom line is I got fourth, I got beaten.
I feel down because this is a track I love, I felt good and to beat Rossi on the last lap would have been really good for me but I can’t dress it up.
I feel like I let the team down today because they gave me the bike to do the job but I didn’t get it done.
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