In front of his home crowd in Australia, Casey Stoner claimed his ninth victory of the season and his second MotoGP World Championship. Stoner was dominant throughout the weekend, and led the race from start to finish ahead of Marco Simoncelli and teammate Andrea Dovizioso.
"I don't think anyone could plan things to happen better than they have today," Stoner said. "The race was incredibly difficult, the conditions we're very tough. I built up an early lead as I saw the rain coming in, but I wasn't sure if it would hit us. I basically ran into a wall of rain, there wasn't any warning at the back part of the circuit and I came into the last turn and the rain started hard. I nearly lost control and thought for sure I was going to end up in the gravel."
Heading into the race, Stoner needed to gain 10 points on Jorge Lorenzo to claim the MotoGP championship. Lorenzo suffered a crash in warm-up which took him out of the race, meaning that Stoner needed a 6th place finish or higher.
"I'm really sorry that Jorge had the accident this morning, he's great competitor and I think if he'd been here racing today things might not have turned out the way they have," Stoner said. "I hope his operation goes well and he's back racing as soon as he feels fit. I can't thank everyone enough, my team, Repsol, all our sponsors, everyone that has worked so hard all year, thank you!"
Stoner's MotoGP World Championship, which comes with two rounds still remaining in the season, also gave Honda its 60th Constructors Championship.
"It is with great pride that I stand here on the day Honda takes its 60th Constructors Title," said Tetsuo Suzuki, HRC President, and Managing Director of Honda R&D. "We have a very proud and long history since Mr. Soichiro Honda first declared to enter road racing in 1954, working hard to develop and produce the most innovative machines. It is a credit to our dedicated team who always strive to break boundaries and expand our engineering methods to create these wonderful bikes and to our talented riders with whom this feat would not have been possible. I would also like to thank all our sponsors and technical partners for their valuable support and input, it has been five years since we won our last Championship and I am honored to see that HRC is back and stronger than ever."
