It truly was a terrific sight watching the Australian sliding the Ducati around this incredible track on Saturday in qualifying,  setting himself up perfectly for race day.

And once the race got under way on Sunday, the Australian left the other riders in his wake, with only new world champion Jorge Lorenzo able to keep anywhere near his pace, but even the Yamaha rider was 1.5 seconds back after only one lap.

With the race clearly in Stoner’s pocket barring the unthinkable and Lorenzo himself riding a lonely second throughout the race, it was left to former champion Valentino Rossi to spice things up for the third race running, albeit in a fight for third place.

Rossi, again bogged down off the start line, began one of his infamous charges fighting through the field and putting himself into the dogfight for the final podium place.

Andrea Dovizioso compounded Honda’s awful weekend when he had to withdraw early on with a brake lever problem, team mate Dani Pedrosa who had previously announced himself fit conceded that he was not ready for the race after qualifying in 15th on Saturday.

Spies, Simoncelli, Hayden and Rossi swapped places frequently as the race progressed with Rossi and Hayden eventually breaking from the group in the race for third position.

When Nicky Hayden put a pass on Rossi with only a couple of laps remaining, you sensed that he had made the move to early with the Italian rider in his current mood, and it turned out just that way as Rossi came back at the American and nicked third place on a thrilling last lap.

Casey Stoner finished the race 8.598 seconds ahead of Lorenzo to claim his fourth win out of four attempts at the Phillip Island circuit, back on top form with a fluent and faultless ride on his home track.

Australian MotoGP result:

1 Casey Stoner (Aus) Ducati 41:09.128
2 Jorge Lorenzo (Sp) Yamaha 41:17.726
3 Valentino Rossi (It) Yamaha 41:27.125
4 Nicky Hayden (US) Ducati 41:27.163
5 Ben Spies (US) Yamaha 41:31.339
6 Marco Simoncelli (It) Honda 41:34.145
7 Colin Edwards (US) Yamaha 41:44.296
8 Aleix Espargaro (Sp) Ducati 41:55.322
9 Marco Melandri (It) Honda 41:55.422
10 Randy de Puniet (Fr) Honda 42:08.763
11 Mika Kallio (Fin) Ducati 42:08.792
12 Alvaro Bautista (Sp) Suzuki 42:08.860

With Pedrosa confident of a return in Portugal and Spain the race for second place in the championship has started to heat up into a three way battle between Pedrosa, Stoner and Rossi. Here are the current standings;

1 Jorge Lorenzo (Sp) Yamaha 333* world champion
2 Dani Pedrosa (Sp) Honda 228
3 Casey Stoner (Aus) Ducati 205
4 Valentino Rossi (It) Yamaha 197
5 Andrea Dovizioso (It) Honda 179
6 Ben Spies (US) Yamaha 163
7 Nicky Hayden (US) Ducati 152
8 Marco Simoncelli (It) Honda 102
9 Randy de Puniet (Fr) Honda 100
10 Marco Melandri (It) Honda 93

Moto2 race result:

1 Alex De Angelis (SM) 39:51.102
2 Scott Redding (GB) 39:53.274
3 Andrea Iannone (It) 39:54.076

125cc race result:

1 Marc Marquez (Sp) 38:13.008
2 Pol Espargaro (Sp) 38:19.070
3 Nicolas Terol (Sp) 38:24.584

The race due to take place at the Motegi circuit has now been put back until October after it was deemed that the teams and riders would have great difficulty in transporting the equipment and the personnel to the circuit.

The GP has now been scheduled for the 3 October, before the Sepang Grand Prix in Malaysia and the Phillip Island round in Australia.

The MotoGP cost cutting goes a bit further than expected!

The provisional MotoGP Calendar has now been released by the FIM for the MotoGP World Championship of 2010, and hopefully all teams and riders will be on the grid as the economic crisis continues.

Date – Grand Prix – Circuit:
11 April – Qatar* – Losail
25 April – Japan – Motegi
2 May – Spain – Jerez
16 May – France – Le Mans
30 May – Italy – Mugello
6 June - Great Britain – Silverstone
26 June – Netherlands** – Assen
4 July – Catalunya – Catalunya
18 July - Germany – Sachsenring
25 July - United States*** – Laguna Seca
15 August – Czech Republic – Brno
29 August – Indianapolis – Indianapolis
12 September - San Marino & Riviera di Rimini – Misano
19 September - Hungary – Balatonring
10 October – Malaysia – Sepang
17 October – Australia - Phillip Island
31 October – Portugal – Estoril
7 November Valencia Ricardo Tormo-Valencia

* Evening Race
** Saturday Race
*** Only MotoGP class

In the event that one of the circuits is not able to comply with the requirements to hold the scheduled Grand Prix, the Motorland Aragon Circuit would host a reserve “event” on the same day.