Here’s our other gallery from the Phillip Island GP for you. Just click on one of the thumbnails to also see more pics from the parc ferme, the podium, inside the garages and the grid. Enjoy.

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We’re a little late in posting our gallery from last weekend’s Iveco Australian Grand Prix, but we’ll make up for it, because we have 111 pics for you to enjoy and we’ll be posting another gallery for you later today, so check back with us.

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Jorge Lorenzo has been released from the Knox Private Hospital in Australia and has flown back home to Barcelona to recover from the surgery to his left middle and ring finger that he sustained in a crash during warm-up practice at Phillip Island.

The former World Champion will miss this weekend’s MotoGP race at Sepang and also the 1000cc test that Yamaha had programmed for Monday following the Malaysian race.

At the moment it is unknown whether Yamaha will continue the test only with Ben Spies, who was also ruled out of the Sepang GP, due to a cracked rib and a concussion picked up during last Saturday’s qualifying session. The American expects to be fit enough to ride this weekend.

“Casey has had an incredible season with very few mistakes. He has always been very strong and consistent so it has been very difficult to beat him. Congratulations to him, he has been the best this year and deserves his second title, a huge achievement as it comes with a different manufacturer. I would have liked to have fought until the end, maybe until Valencia but the accident on Sunday made it impossible. I am very proud of my team for all the hard work they have put in to take second place in the championship. Now we have to think about next year and work as hard as possible to win again.”

Continue reading: Jorge Lorenzo congratulates Casey Stoner and gives health update

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The Australian GP at Phillip Island was one of the races with the lowest number of partecipants on the MotoGP grid as only fourteen riders were able to take part at the start, with Jorge Lorenzo, Ben Spies and Damian Cudlin all ruled out of the race after this morning’s warm-up due to injuries. Only ten lucky riders made it to the finish line as four crashed out and a certain Casey Stoner won the 2011 title.

Here’s what the rest of the riders had to say following the 16th round of the season and there’ll be very little rest for them, as the 17th MotoGP round will be next week in Malaysia.

Marco Simoncelli - 2nd

“I am delighted! It was a really tough race with changeable conditions throughout and every time I saw raindrops on my visor I was unsure whether I could push or not. I managed to put a little gap on Dovizioso and Pedrosa, but when the rain came Dovizioso was able to catch me and make a pass. I managed to stay with him and follow his lines so when the track was dry again on the last lap I was able to throw everything at him and make the pass. I had been second for the whole race and I didn’t want to give up on it until the end. It was nice to finish directly behind the new world champion. I feel sorry for (Jorge) Lorenzo and I hope he is fit and back on track again soon.”

Continue reading: MotoGP rider quotes from the Australian GP

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Not even Nicky Hayden’s 7th place finish could save the Ducati’s factory works team honour today at Phillip Island a track where the Ducati has always gone well. Not only did Hayden finish behind Pramac’s Randy de Puniet because he decided to pit when it began raining, team mate Valentino Rossi crashed out on lap 14 after passing Alvaro Bautista and doesn’t know why.

Italian fans are still up in arms and demanding that Ducati ‘divorce’ from Rossi and that one of SportMediaset’s post race show commentators be fired as well for calling the Desmosedici a shitty bike (which Rossi laughed at).

Rossi revealed that he doesn’t know why he crashed and his data technician is also at odds to explain the crash. The Italian however stated in the post race interview that he’s only riding the front of GP11.2 at 70 to 80% because he doesn’t trust it and he’s right not to trust the bike, because he’s never crashed so many times in a season and every time he begins to believe in his bike, the front gives out without any warning.

Nicky Hayden - 7th
“Conditions were really tough today, with wind and rain off-and-on at different parts of the track. My start actually wasn’t amazing, but I think everybody else got away worse than I did. I was in a good position, but I really had no grip at the rear from the very beginning, and although I tried as hard as I could, I couldn’t defend much when guys started coming past. Eventually I blistered the rear tyre and was just trying to make it to the finish, and then when it started to rain harder, it felt really slick. I just about lost it, and when I saw Bautista go down, I decided to come in and change bikes rather than risk doing the same. It’s another seventh place, but I was closer to the front than I’ve been in most races. I felt good apart from a few places, like Turn 6, and the bike was fast. We’ll try to base our future work on those positives.”

Continue reading: Nicky Hayden has tire issues, while Valentino Rossi doesn't trust his Ducati

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Following his crash during this morning’s warm-up practice at Phillip Island, Jorge Lorenzo underwent surgery to repair the damage to his left ring finger. The Yamaha rider had the top of the finger torn off (it remained in his glove) when his hand stayed trapped in the M1’s handlebars.

Lorenzo was flown straight to Alfred hospital in Melbourne, where doctors performed a complex reconstructive surgery that saved the both the tendons and the nerves of the finger which will continue to let the Spaniard have a fully functional finger.

As a consequence of the surgery and expecting a long recovery period Lorenzo will miss next weekend’s race at Sepang and the final round of the season at Valencia in November is also in doubt.

Yamaha update on Lorenzo’s injury:

Surgery to repair damage to Jorge Lorenzo’s finger in Melbourne this evening has been successful. The surgeon was able to save the nerves and tendons of the injured fourth finger, as a result no functionality will be lost in either the finger or the hand. Unfortunately an extended recovery time will be required so Jorge will not race in Sepang for the Malaysian Grand Prix. A decision on the Valencia Grand Prix will be made dependent on Jorge’s condition after his return to Barcelona. The official medical bulletin will be released tomorrow morning.

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Casey Stoner celebrated his 26th birthday, the his fifth consecutive victory at Phillip Island, his ninth of the season and the 2011 World Championship title, all at his home circuit in what turned out to be an eventful race.

The Australian only needed to finish sixth after title rival Jorge Lorenzo was unable to start following the finger injury he sustained in his warm-up crash, but the Repsol Honda rider dominated from the start of the race as he was able to cruise to victory with no one even close to contest him.

This is Stoner’s second world title after his 2007 one with Ducati and he took the 2011 title with 9 victories, 15 podiums and 11 pole positions as he also handed Honda the 2011 manufacturers title, their first since the 800cc era.

The race was pretty eventful even considering Stoner’s domination, as Marco Simoncelli took the second place on the podium after battling it out with rival Andrea Dovizioso in the final laps of the race, making it an all Honda podium.

Continue reading: Casey Stoner celebrates race win, 2011 championship title and birthday at Phillip Island

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Today’s MotoGP race at Phillip Island has lost another rider after Jorge Lorenzo injured himself during warm-up practice, because Yamaha team mate Ben Spies has decided to withdraw from the event following his yesterday’s high speed qualifying crash.

Spies took part in this morning’s warm-up and turned in a total of 12 laps, but had some problems with a pinched nerve in his neck which was causing him reduced concentration and the circuit doctors decided it would be too dangerous to let him ride.

Damian Cudlin who was subbing for injured Hector Barbera, has also decided to withdraw ahead of today’s race following his highside during yesterday’s free practice. The Australian suffered a left hip injury.

The MotoGP grid will see only fourteen riders today.

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Casey Stoner will have free reign to take the 2011 World Championship today at his home circuit at Phillip Island and will need just a sixth place finish as Jorge Lorenzo has been forced to withdraw from the race.

Lorenzo suffered a strange highside at turn 12 in the final minute of this morning’s warm-up practice, when he was just 0.050s from Casey Stoner who was leading the session. In the crash the Spaniard partially lost the tip of his left ring finger and was transported to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, where he will have to undergo surgery later today .

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After yesterday’s MotoGP riders complaints regarding the bumpiness of the Phillip Island circuit, Linfox Property Group who owns the circuit has decided to resurface the track in time for the 2013 season, so the riders will have to suck it up for another year.

After Valentino Rossi’s latest dismal qualifying result, he’s the third slowest Ducati rider with the most updated machine, only rookie Karel Abraham and substitute rider Damian Cudlin are slower. Italian fans are demanding that Rossi be sacked immediately for incompetence and for making Ducati spend so much money and that he return his 15 million euro paycheck to the Italian manufacturer.

Casey Stoner will turn 26 tomorrow and his fiefdom is Phillip Island and after today’s latest pole position and while other riders are discussing which tire to use, fans are wondering just how much much margin he’ll win by and when the Australian circuit will name a corner after him.

Casey Stoner - 1st

“So far so good, we have a good race pace and the bike’s feeling pretty good at the moment. We still need to improve the rear grip, but I think this is the same for everyone, we’d also like to get the harder rear tyre working better for the race. We began Qualifying with older tyres to understand where we are for the race and I’m quite happy as the lap times we were achieving were similar to Jorge and Dani who were on the new soft tyre. Then we put on the soft tyre for the first time since yesterday morning, everything felt good and we were able to improve our lap time consistently, but it’s still difficult on the left side of the tyre and we’re getting a lot of spinning and tyre degradation. We’ll see what the weather does tomorrow, it’s not looking too good right now but we’ll adapt to whatever it throws at us. Jorge is strong everywhere we go and I think my chances of taking the Championship here tomorrow is pretty slim to be honest, we’re just going to go out there and concentrate on winning the race.”

Continue reading: MotoGP riders debrief on qualifying at Phillip Island

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Finding words to describe the performance of Casey Stoner at Phillip Island is becoming impossible. The Repsol Honda rider was faster than light as he blazed to his fifth consecutive pole position, his 11th of this incredible 2011 season.

Laying down an untouchable 1’29″975 that left the hard working Jorge Lorenzo, who has an impressive race pace in the first three sectors, while losing almost two tenths in the fourth, in second place and 0.473s adrift.

Gresini’s Marco Simoncelli who has crashed three times so far this weekend, grabbed the final place spot on the front row, bumping a surprising Alvaro Bautista who ended up fourth after grabbing a tow by Andrea Dovizioso who finished in fifth. This was Bautista’s best qualifying session ever on the GSV-R.

Continue reading: Casey Stoner blazes to another pole position at Phillip Island

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Casey Stoner was completely unstoppable in this morning’s final practice at Phillip Island. The Repsol Honda rider stopped the clock at 1’30″550, but uncharacteristically he took a little more time than his usual in doing it. The Australian put in a series of laps of laps under the 1.31 mark in the final minutes of the session which gave him a huge margin of the rest of the field.

A determined Jorge Lorenzo took second but his was over 0.640s slower, while Repsol Honda team mate Dani Pedrosa improved to take third and was almost a second off pace. Marco Simoncelli was fourth as he crashed out for the third time this weekend, always at the MG corner.

Ben Spies took fifth followed by Andrea Dovizioso. Randy de Puniet was again the top Ducati rider as he brought his satellite GP11 into seventh ahead of Ducati factory riders Nicky Hayden and a massively struggling and distant Valentino Rossi, who were 9th and 12th respectively.

Alvaro Bautista was eighth while Colin Edwards closed out the top ten with Yamaha Tech3 machine.

Damian Cudlin unfortunately got a taste of the classic Bridgestone cold tire syndrome, as he highsided on his third lap out at turn 2 and had to limp back to his garage.

Continue reading: Casey Stoner unstoppable in FP3 at Phillip Island

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