 1 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 Phillip Island has a lot of things going for it: scenic location, wonderful track, well organised transport (note: the buses parked in a street reserved exclusively for them), friendly unobtrusive policing and security. |
 2 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 It also has a lot of things going against it: third-world spectator facilities and the most awful jingoistic track commentary ever. There is no paved area outside of the track, no covered grandstands, portable toilets only and the world's worst (surely?) food concessions. It is usually cold, windy and rainy as well. |
 3 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 Jenni and I got ourselves into the grandstand at Lukey Heights, turn 9. Being the highest point on the circuit, it was also the coldest and windiest. The track view was pretty good however. |
 4 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 For the weekend, Marlboro gave Casey Stoner permission to use a patriotic theme with both his bike and leathers. Casey had pole, Valentino was second and Pedrosa completed the front row. Lorenzo in fourth was off the front row for the first time this year. |
 5 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 At the start, Pedrosa shot ahead closely followed by Stoner and Rossi. In a moment that changed the championship, Lorenzo crashed into Hayden as Hayden was overtaking him into turn 1. |
 6 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 Lorenzo crashed out and bumped Hayden off line and through the gravel. Hayden continued but his bike was severely damaged. |
 7 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 Pedrosa and Stoner have cleared out while Rossi leads the rest of the pack through turn 3. Rossi said that this is the fastest turn on the track and you need to hold the throttle wide open here. That's quite a trick with a 60 kmh hairpin as the next corner. |
 8 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 Rossi catches up to the leaders on the back half of the circuit and lines up his favourite passing manoeuvre at turn 10. |
 9 15 GP Australia 16, 17 y 18 de octubre de 2009 15 GP Australia 16, 17 y 18 de octubre de 2009 |
 10 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 Stoner moves into the lead and Rossi is now in second place. |
 11 Moto GP Australia Round 15 Phillip Island Casey Stoner Ducati Marlboro Team leads Valentino Rossi |
 12 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 The pair opened up a 15 second lead back to Pedrosa in third - it was a dominant display. This was Casey's second race back after taking time out for his mysterious physical ailment, but his fitness held until the end. |
 13 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 Rossi finished second to move 38 points in front of his nearest rival with only 50 points left to contest. It now appeared that Rossi was on the cusp of taking his ninth GP Championship. Here. he leaves the circuit at turn 4 and returns to the pits. |
 14 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 Casey, as was the Australian crowd, was delighted with his win. He was even more delighted that his strength held for the entire race. |
 15 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 Pedrosa bemoaned that he did not seem to be able to do better than third. |
 16 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 Despite taking three races off, Casey moved back past Pedrosa into third place in the Championship. Capirossi played the engine game and started from the back of the grid as he replaced an engine. He did one lap on the new engine and rode the old engine in the race. This gave him a fresh engine for the Malaysian round in a week's time, a circuit at which he always does well. |
 17 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 It was not a good race really. What made it interesting was Lorenzo's crash and Rossi needing to ride cautiously to take advantage of it. There was a bit of a contest for seventh and eight but that was about it. |
 18 Round 15 - Phillip Island, Australia, Sunday, October 18, 2009 Rossi moved to a commanding lead in the championship. Positions 7 through 10 are interesting. Except for one race, Rossi and Lorenzo have occupied at least one of the two top steps of the podium. |
