Yamaha duo blown away by Casey Stoner

Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo admitted they had little chance of ending Casey Stoner’s domination of his home race in Phillip Island yesterday.

Stoner was in majestic form throughout the weekend, the Aussie following up his 25th career pole position with a resounding 23rd MotoGP victory.

New world champion Lorenzo was a distant second and he said: “I just tried my best and I rode the best I could, In some laps it seemed the gap was getting closer but not by much.

“Then when I thought I was getting closer, the next lap Casey would pull some more tenths. In the middle of the race I thought it’s better not to take any big risks and just finish second and be happy with this position.

“He was very fast from the start. I think I was 1.5s down after the first lap and when I saw that I knew I had little hope. The day was Casey’s.”

Italian Rossi was also never in the hunt and less of a chance of giving Stoner a hard time than Lorenzo having started way down in eighth.

He produced another wonderful exhibition in overtaking, the 31-year-old clinching a third straight rostrum with a clinical pass on 2011 factory Ducati team-mate Nicky Hayden at turn four on the final lap.

The nine-times world champion said: “At the end Nicky was strong and in some places also a little bit faster than me. But when you start from the third row and arrive on the podium it is a good result I enjoy the race.

“I think here the Ducati is a little bit faster than Yamaha in this track. We discovered this also in the past, especially last year when Casey and me went 100 per cent for the race and he beat me at the end.

Find out what Rossi thinks of Stoner’s Ducati resurgence and check out why the Bologna factory would have been interested in Scott Redding’s second place in the Moto2 race by reading this week’s Motorcycle News (Wednesday, October 20).