GMC Australian Motorcycle GP. Oct 2006

Randy De Puniet, 25, led the way in the second free practice session, bolted on a qualifying tyre with seconds to go and reclaimed the top spot which Capirossi — also on qualifying rubber — had just stolen from him.
"The bike was OK — and me too!" grinned De Puniet, who is only 16th in the standings but has begun to find his feet in the second half of his maiden year.
Both riders saw their team-mates, Shinya Nakano and Sete Gibernau, follow them into the top four, split by the Honda of American title leader Nicky Hayden.
World Champion Valentino Rossi's Yamaha had a low key day, finishing sixth in the second session, while the man lying second in the Champion-ship, Dani Pedrosa, visibly struggled for pace on his Honda as he fights to recover from the leg injuries he sustained in Malaysia at the last race.

Aussie duo Casey Stoner (Honda) and Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) were 6th and 14th respectively on the day as they fought to master the 4.448km Island circuit on the big machines.
Stoner complained of having too many tyres to test without finding a solution.
"It's a great feeling to be back at the Island," he said, "but I'm just trying to concentrate on what I'm doing out on the track."
The MotoGP men have their one off qualifying shoot-out on Saturday afternoon, but the pattern has already been set for the pole position battle in the other two World Championship categories.
In the quarter-litre class it's Spain's Jorge Lorenzo who led the way, as he does in the title fight, though France had its flag-bearer there as Sylvain Guintoli set some scorching times on his Aprilia.
Runaway title leader Alvaro Bautista didn't have it all his own way in the 125 class as Mika Kallio fought back from a wasted morning to claim provisional pole.
"That was unbelievable," enthused Kallio, last year's title runner-up who has fought as a lone hand for KTM against the all powerful Aspar Aprilia team this season. "I thought it must be a mistake, but I felt very good all the time and we set many good laps."
Bautista was fourth, while last year's Island pole sitter and race winner Thomas Luthi, the outgoing World Champion, found some real pace to be second on the day.

AUSSIE SUPPORT EVENTS

While Peter Galvin picked up where he left off last year with a comfortable win in the first of the Aussie 125cc races, it was the last race of the day, the second in the Denso Supersports series, that brought Friday to a fantastic climax.
Mark Aitchison, riding with a broken bone in his foot, just caught Jamie Stauffer on the line in a thrilling all Yamaha finish in a race cut to six laps after a rear-of-grid pile-up at the first start. Stauffer won the first Supersport race from Aitchison, Jeremy Crowe third.

Saturday action
The stunning weather continued for the second day of the GMC Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, with another bumper crowd flocking to the Phillip Island circuit to see the Kentucky Kid, Nicky Hayden, grab pole position. The crowd of 28,430 was the highest second day crowd since 2003.
Championship leader Hayden carved three-tenths of a second off his own 2005 pole-winning time in a session where Sete Gibernau's Ducati was clocked at a stunning 327.4 km/h down the main Gardner Straight.
Aussie Casey Stoner looked good for a front row when he went third quickest 20 minutes from the end, but the LCR Honda rider was placed eighth on the grid after a late swoop by riders on qualifying tyres.
"It's a great feeling to be back at the Island, although I'm just trying to concentrate on what I'm doing out on the track," he said.
"Unfortunately we've had some problems today and I'm hoping we can find the answers so that I can be competitive for the race. I found a tyre I liked this morning for my fast time, but then some other riders complained about it because it took about four laps to really perform, and then Michelin did not have this tyre on our list for the afternoon. And then the wind came up and upset the balance of the bike, pushing the front on corner exits and we changed the set-up looking for rear grip but went backwards - mainly because I had too many tyres to test.

"We wasted a lot of time this afternoon and I did not get a chance to do a race test on my preferred tyre. I've had some treatment on the back and that's OK."
Compatriot Chris Vermeulen couldn't come up with a hot qualifying lap as he and Suzuki team mate, John Hopkins, struggled for drive out of the long left-hander at Turn 12 and will start 16th, two places back from his grid spot on home debut last year. "Not our best qualifying session," said Chris. "I have had my worst two positions of the year in the last two races - both sixteenth. This is not what I had hoped for here at Phillip Island."
In the quarter litre class, Aussie hopes were pinned on Anthony West (Kiefer BOS Aprilia), especially after last year's spectacular accident that knocked him out of race contention. Struggling on non-competitive machinery, West could only manage 12th best overall, Jorge Lorenzo (Fortuna Aprilia) the class of the field, almost a full second clear of Alex de Angelis (MVA Aspar Aprilia) to secure pole position. Sylvain Guintoli (Equipe GP De France Aprilia) and Lorenzo's main championship rival, Andrea Dovisiozo (Humangest Racing Honda) making up the rest of the front row. Former 125cc champ, Manuel Poggiali (Red Bull KTM) suffered a spectacular, but fortunately not serious spill at the fast Hayshed turn.
Poggiali's 125cc red Bull team mate, Mika Kallio also crashed, but fortunately he had his spill after securing pole position. 125cc championship contender, Alvaro Bautista (MVA Aspar Aprilia) was second best in qualifying, followed by Lukas Pesek (Derbi Racing) and Thomas Luthi (Elit Honda) completing the front row.

AUSSIE SUPPORT EVENTS

It wasn't all qualifying action at the Island, though. Aussie support events kept the fans entertained through the day, a highlight being the 40+ riders entered for the Aussie Supersport races.
With Adam Fergusson out of the Joe Rocket factory Honda squad for this event and team mate Glen Allerton injured, it was up to Russell Holland to fly the flag for Honda.
Jamie Stauffer (Yamaha Racing Team) was the fastest qualifier and had a thrilling duel with Holland early in the first Superbike race, setting the fastest lap time on lap three trying to put a gap on Holland. Unfortunately for Holland, he slid out at Honda corner on lap four, allowing Stauffer to pull away to a comfortable win. Holland kept it upright for the remaining two Superbike races, finishing a close second behind Stauffer, the Yamaha rider's three wins dominating the meeting.
In the Supersport races, it was all blue, but the wins were split between Jamie Stauffer and team mates Jason O'Halloran and Mark Aitchison. In fact, Yamaha riders took the top two podium places in all three races.
In the Aussie 125s, Peter Galvin scored the first win, a runaway victory from Jed Metcher and Brad Gross. In race 2, veteran rider, Cath Thompson scored one for the ladies, winning a close one from Gross and Metcher. In Sunday's final race, Thompson was on the pace early, then crashed out, allowing four-time National Champ Galvin to romp away from the rest of the 30 bike field to record an easy win.

125cc Bautista takes title

Spain's Alvaro Bautista became the year's first World Champion after winning the 125cc race at the 2006 GMC Australian Motorcycle GP. The 21-year-old Spaniard won the shortened 15-lap race by a comfortable margin of 3.242 seconds — and by the skin of his teeth. A first lap pile-up at Southern Loop eliminated Bautista's Aspar Aprilia team-mate Sergio Gadea, which brought out the red flag for a race re-start. Mattia Pasini's bike was also wrecked following a crash at Siberia corner on the same opening lap. The Aspar crew worked furiously to get spare bikes out in time for the re-start. Bautista made it with literally seconds to spare. The accidents nullified a brilliant start by pole sitter Mika Kallio, the KTM rider who has fought a lone hand against the four-man Aspar team all year. Kallio needed to finish ahead of Bautista at the Island to keep his own world title chances alive.
Kallio jumped clear again from the re-start but was soon passed by Bautista, who led by three-tenths of a second after two laps, then strung together a sequence of laps all under the previous lap record to cruise home alone. Pasini put in a fantastic effort to take the final podium place just ahead of a string of other riders.
Bautista is the first man to win a 125cc World Championship race for Aprilia at Phillip Island and the first rider to claim seven race victories in a single season since Japan's Haruchika Aoki 11 years ago. The win carries Bautista to 280 points, an uncatchable 79 clear of Kallio, with just three races to go. "I'm world champion!!" said a clearly overjoyed Bautista after the race. "You have to enjoy moments like this because in this sport, things rarely go as well for you as they have for us this season."
Of the Aussie wildcard entries, Rhys Moller was the only local to make the 107% cut in qualifying, but unfortunately crashed out midway through the race.
Blake Leigh-Smith had a good weekend, finishing the race and scoring a ride with the Red Bull KTM Junior Team for the remainder of the 2006 season.

125 Results: 1. Bautista, 2. Kallio, 3. Pasini, 4. Luthi, 5. Simon, 6. Pesek, 7. De Rosa, 8. Lai, 9. Talmacsi, 10. Olive.

Championship Standings 125cc: 1. Bautista 280 (2006 World Champion), 2. Kallio 201, 3. Pasini 172, 4. Gadea, 5. Faubel 142, 6. Pesel 119, 7. Luthi 107, 8. Talmacsi 96, 9. Olive 85, 10. Corsi 72.

Jorge takes 250cc
Aprilia's Jorge Lorenzo did what many expected when he took a pole-to-flag win in the 250cc class at the 2006 GMC Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, but it was hardly a stroll in the Phillip Island sunshine for the Chupa Chup kid.
Lorenzo, who had led every session bar this morning's warm-up all weekend, had to withstand a frantic last lap charge by Aprilia's Alex De Angelis, and crossed the line with a miniscule margin of just 0.009 seconds. The win was Lorenzo's eighth for the season and fifth in the last six races, but he had to fight all the way after a dreadful start pushed the World Championship leader back to fifth place on the opening lap.
Andrea Dovizioso, the man closest to Lorenzo in the World Championship, made an electric start from the outside of the front row to take the lead in the early laps, but his speed tailed off significantly in the latter stages of the race, and he eventually finished fourth.

Joining Lorenzo and De Angelis on the podium was KTM's Hiroshi Aoyama, who ran with the leading group for much of the race from sixth on the grid, and took his fifth podium of 2006.
Lorenzo, De Angelis, Aoyama and Dovizioso made it a four man fight from the very first laps, with the quartet opening up a 12-second gap to fifth place man Roberto Locatelli after just 11 of the 25.
Lorenzo took the lead from De Angelis, who had led from lap three, at Turn Two on lap 10, and despite some close attention from the native of San Marino in the last lap, held on by the barest of margins.
Australia's Ant West, who started the race from 12th on the grid and fell back to 14th after lap one, was the fastest man on the track outside of the first four riders in the latter half of the race. West passed Gilera's Marco Simoncelli for ninth place with two laps remaining.

Lorenzo's third consecutive win saw him extend his Championship lead: he now has 249 points to Dovizioso's 225, with De Angelis further back in third place on 167. West still sits in 11th place.

250 Results: 1. Lorenzo, 2. deAngelis, 3. H. Aoyama, 4. Dovisiozo, 5. S. Aoyama, 6. Barbera, 7. Locatelli, 8. Smrz, 9. West, 10. Simoncelli.

Championship Standings 250cc: 1. Lorenzo 249, 2. Dovizioso 225, 3. de Angelis 167, 4. H. Aoyama 148, 5. Locatelli 147, 6. Takahashi 146, 7. Barbera 121, 8. Guintoli 82, 9. S. Aoyama 79, 10. Simoncelli 76, 11. West 66.

Chris Vermeulen produced one of the races of his life to claim his first MotoGP podium behind Marco Melandri at a history-making 2006 GMC Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Vermeulen, the 24-year-old Suzuki rider in his first full MotoGP season, gave a bumper Phillip Island crowd of over 44,000 the boost they had been hoping for when he finished second in a race where history was made in more ways than one.
Vermeulen became the first Aussie rider in the premier class to be on the podium here since the great Mick Doohan won the 500cc race back in 1998.
"I was here watching that day," said an elated Vermeulen after mastering the tricky dry-wet-dry conditions that marked the main event of an action-packed day. "To score my first podium at Phillip Island is a great feeling — and it's great for Australian motorcycle racing."
Melandri carved his own niche in two-wheeled racing as the first rider to win the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island in all three categories. He was the 125cc race winner in 1999 and sealed his 2002 World Championship with another win here.
Vermeulen's compatriot Casey Stoner had thrilled a building crowd on a foggy morning when he took top spot in the final warm-up session, but while the 20-year-old Honda rider was running in the top four at one stage the changing race conditions brought him undone.

Valentino Rossi clinched the final spot on the podium with a daring manoeuvre in the very last corner of a dramatic race, the first of its kind in MotoGP, held in mixed weather conditions at Phillip Island. The drama started on the warm-up lap when a light shower meant that the race was called as wet, giving the riders the chance to change tyres on the grid. However, with track conditions still relatively dry they all opted to stay on slicks until the rain intensified - this resulted in the first application of the new ‘pitstop' rule that allowed riders to pull into the pits and change to bikes already set up for wet conditions.

With mostriders choosing to come in on lap eight, pitlane was a frantic scene, with crews, bikes and marshals all part of the drama of bike changes ‘on the fly'. While accidents were thankfully avoided, there were some near misses and hairy moments! Rossi came in on lap eight, having battled back to third after dropping to ninth following a poor start from the front row.
The Italian's team mate Colin Edwards had also been about to come in and change his tyres on the same lap but the American was caught out by a slippery patch of track in the middle of the second corner, which caused the rear tyre of his YZR-M1 machine to lose grip and step out before digging in again and throwing him over the handlebars. Edwards landed hard on his backside and was badly winded, but thankfully he escaped any serious injury.
Back out onto the track, Rossi's over-cautiousness on the wet tyres saw him lose several places and drop to eighth. After a brief battle with eventual winner Marco Melandri (Honda), Rossi took a few laps to carefully judge the condition of a track that had now begun to dry out again, making the performance of the wet tyres difficult to predict. Over the closing laps he picked up his pace and launched a typical charge past several riders - including a stunning five in one lap - culminating in a thrilling final corner move on Sete Gibernau (Ducati) that sealed third place and moved him up to second in the championship, 21 points behind Nicky Hayden (Honda), who finished fifth. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) completed the podium in second place. "Three races, 21 points, it's not impossible," said Rossi, who was disappointed to miss out on being the first rider to win six consecutive races at the same circuit. "I don't know if I have enough years to try another time!" joked the irrepressible Italian.
"I'm a little disappointed with third place because I know that in dry conditions we had a very good set-up and I think the result could have been better. Anyway, we can't do anything about the weather and in these circumstances I have to be thankful for third place because we have pulled some more points back on Nicky," said Rossi.

After just six laps another piece of history was made when Englishman James Ellison on his Yamaha became the first MotoGP rider to switch bikes in mid-race under new regulations introduced this year.
As the rain increased, the rest followed suit, early leader Shinya Nakano losing out as he tried to stay out one lap too long on his Kawasaki. While Nakano made his decision too late, Ellison's change would prove to be too early, the Briton swiching back to his slick-shod bike later in the race.
Vermeulen, who built his superb result on a brilliant final lap on slick tyres before his mid-race change of machines, coped better than most with the difficult ‘wet, dry, wet, then dry again' conditions.
"When I came in the team had my bike ready, I got back out quickly and got my head down straight away," said Vermeulen, who made his MotoGP debut here last year and finished 11th.
The day's glory belonged to Melandri, though, the Italian handling the changing conditions best, passing Gibernau on lap 16 before finishing 10 seconds ahead of Vermeulen at the finish. Showing his joy, Melandri pulled a big powerslide out of the final turn, pumping his fists as he greeted the chequered flag.
"When I got to the lead with 11 laps to go, I knew I just had to be smooth" said the Italian.
"We were all getting a lot of wheelspin, but my Michelin tyres were so good all the way to the end."