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 Team Manufacturer Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Casey Stoner Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 27 40:56.643 1 25 2 46 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 27 +6.504 12 20 3 69 Nicky Hayden Repsol Honda Team Honda 27 +7.205 3 16 4 48 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 27 +11.500 2 13 5 56 Shinya Nakano San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 27 +11.914 9 11 6 52 James Toseland Tech 3 Yamaha Yamaha 27 +12.243 5 10 7 4 Andrea Dovizioso JiR Team Scot MotoGP Honda 27 +12.780 8 9 8 5 Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha Yamaha 27 +25.920 7 8 9 14 Randy de Puniet LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 27 +26.037 4 7 10 65 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 27 +26.799 11 6 11 24 Toni Elías Alice Team Ducati 27 +27.027 13 5 12 13 Anthony West Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki 27 +47.808 18 4 13 21 John Hopkins Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki 27 +48.333 16 3 14 50 Sylvain Guintoli Alice Team Ducati 27 +48.899 14 2 15 7 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 27 +48.935 15 1 16 33 Marco Melandri Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 27 +1:11.767 17 Ret 15 Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 0 Accident 10 Ret 2 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda 0 Accident 6 Sources:

250 cc classification Pos. No. Rider Manufacturer Laps Time/Retired 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 Julián Simón KTM 25 +14.478 6 13 5 6 Alex Debón 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 Espargaró 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 Tóth Aprilia 25 +1:23.995 16 3 14 52 Lukáš Pešek Aprilia 25 +1:39.740 14 2 15 35 Simone Grotzkyj Gilera 24 +1 lap 21 1 16 92 Daniel Arcas Aprilia 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 Hernández Aprilia 1 Retirement 19 DNQ 89 Ho Wan Chow Aprilia Did not qualify DNQ 27 Stefano Bianco Aprilia Did not qualify OFFICIAL 250cc REPORT

125 cc classification Pos. No. Rider Manufacturer Laps Time/Retired 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 15 11 6 11 Sandro Cortese Aprilia 23 +27.123 6 10 7 12 Esteve Rabat KTM 23 +27.181 17 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 25 5 12 8 Lorenzo Zanetti KTM 23 +57.413 19 4 13 22 Pablo Nieto KTM 23 +57.451 16 3 14 6 Joan Olivé Derbi 23 +57.539 18 2 15 21 Robin Lässer Aprilia 23 +1:06.318 23 1 16 72 Marco Ravaioli Aprilia 23 +1:06.320 29 17 26 Adrián Martín Aprilia 23 +1:42.441 30 18 36 Cyril Carrillo Honda 23 +1:42.455 31 19 28 Enrique Jerez KTM 23 +1:43.792 32 20 91 Jed Metcher Honda 22 +1 lap 33 21 34 Randy Krummenacher KTM 21 +2 laps 20 Ret 38 Bradley Smith Aprilia 21 Accident 2 Ret 48 Bastien Chesaux Aprilia 14 Retirement 28 Ret 33 Sergio Gadea Aprilia 13 Retirement 14 Ret 51 Stevie Bonsey Aprilia 12 Retirement 13 Ret 70 Rhys Moller Honda 10 Accident 34 Ret 16 Jules Cluzel Loncin 8 Accident 27 Ret 46 Brad Gross Yamaha 8 Retirement 35 Ret 56 Hugo van den Berg Aprilia 7 Accident 21 Ret 95 Robert Mureșan Aprilia 2 Accident 24 Ret 35 Raffaele De Rosa KTM 2 Accident 7 Ret 5 Alexis Masbou Loncin 1 Retirement 22 Ret 18 Nicolás Terol Aprilia 1 Retirement 4 Ret 73 Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia 0 Retirement 26 Ret 77 Dominique Aegerter Derbi 0 Accident 10 DNS 99 Danny Webb Aprilia Did not start DNQ 32 Blake Leigh-Smith Honda Did not qualify DNQ 92 Jake Horne Honda Did not qualify DNQ 60 Michael Ranseder Aprilia Did not qualify OFFICIAL 125cc REPORT

Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)

Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round sixteen has concluded.

Riders' Championship standings Rider Points 1 Valentino Rossi 332 2 Casey Stoner 245 3 Dani Pedrosa 209 4 Jorge Lorenzo 182 5 Andrea Dovizioso 145

Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points 1 Yamaha 361 2 Ducati 286 3 Honda 275 4 Suzuki 165 5 Kawasaki 81

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Notes

References