Vito Ippolito re-elected as FIM President

Vito Ippolito re-elected as FIM President

Australian round review with Ian Wheeler

Tuesday, 19 October 2010

The motogp.com Pit Lane reporter gives his reaction to the 16th round at Phillip Island.

The Iveco Australian Grand Prix offered up another round of great action over the weekend, and whilst Casey Stoner’s third win of the season and Jorge Lorenzo’s second place at Phillip Island may have been comfortable results for the pair, the battle for third between Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden â€" which the Italian edged by the finest of margins â€" was a great spectacle.

“Stoner won by a country mile, Lorenzo had one of the loneliest rides he’ll ever have into second place, and the battle between Hayden and Rossi kept the whole thing interesting,” said motogp.com’s Ian Wheeler.

“It was a fantastic race and Hayden just was not going to let Rossi go, especially after that hard passing move that Rossi put on him. He got back past him but Rossi just had enough to dive back past him and hold him off to the line. Rossi will have been happy with that podium position after fighting so hard for it. Hayden was left frustrated and a little bit unhappy with the outcome, but fair play to him he put on a fantastic show. That is probably one of the best races we’ve seen him do on the Ducati and he just lost out in the end.”

With fifth place Ben Spies clinched the Rookie of the Year award too, and Ian added: “I don’t think there was any doubt Ben Spies would be Rookie of the Year from the second race of the season. I don’t think he’s too bothered about it, he’s probably looking now at taking over from Valentino Rossi on the Fiat Yamaha team next season and I’m sure he’ll see himself as a title contender next year.”

You can test your own expertise against that of Ian’s by playing the Official Fantasy MotoGP 2010 game. Submit your predictions for the next round now and be in with a chance of winning some great prizes!

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