Casey Stoner was in a class of his own all afternoon as he ran off from pole position to control his home race every lap of the way.
His main title rival Jorge Lorenzo was already out following a crash in the warm-up that left the Yamaha rider injured. Lorenzo damaged his fourth finger and underwent surgery which will make him miss the Malaysian GP.
With Lorenzo out all Stoner had to do was finish sixt to secure the title, but he had no thoughts of cruising for points. He quickly built up a four second lead after four laps and went on to control the race.
This was Stoners ninth win of the season and he is now a double world champion. He won his first MotoGP title with Ducati in 2007 and his title with Honda is Honda’s first title in the new 800 CC era.
Honda had a succesful weekend in Australian with four Honda riders in top four. Marco Simoncelli had his best result of the season following Stoner home in second place. Simoncelli seemed to be in control in second place but lost the place when rain fell with three laps to go. Dovizioso could pass him but on the final lap Simoncelli barged past to take back second place.
Fellow Honda rider Dani Pedrosa was also in the fight but backed off to much in the rain and had to settle for fourth.
Ducati hade another troublesome weekend. Nicky Hayden made a fantastic start and moved into second place at the first corner. But he was unable to hold on to it and fell down to 7th place behind Randy De Puniet who was top Ducati rider. Valention Rosso lost the front end and crashed out half way into the race.
Yamaha lost both factory riders before the start. Lorenzo as mentioned crashed in the warm-up. Ben Spies had a high speed crash during qualifying on Saturday and received a hit to the head. After a few laps in warm up he decided to withdraw from the race. Colin Edwards on the Tech3 Yamaha however finished a brilliant fifth and best non-Honda rider.
It’s now only a week before MotoGP arrives in Malaysia for the Malaysian GP. Honda arrives there as constructors champions and Casey Stoner as the new world champion.