Casey Stoner looked happy to be home. All too often he looks tightly wound, or as if he's carrying all the cares of
the world on his shoulders. On the rostrum he actually looked to be enjoying the moment, soaking up the adulation of his home fans after a dominating performance that brought back memories of his championship year. Nicky Hayden took a softer tyre than Michelin advised and used it to press Stoner for the first half of the race.

There are some tracks where even lap-record pace looks, well, ordinary. Phillip Island is not one of them. The lap
ends with a mighty succession of lefthanders that merge into one corner at MotoGP speeds then launch the rider
downhill on the Gardner Straight towards the southern ocean. Stoner's Ducati was clipping the grass on the exit of
the corner, usually while weaving and wobbling in an alarming manner. You look at a circuit like, for instance, Le Mans, and think however misguidedly "Nah, I could do that." At Phillip Island you just gasp in amazement every
time a bike comes past. I've always thought the first corner, Doohan's, must be the most terrifying on the calendar.

Not so, says Casey, it's the third corner, the long left after the Southern Loop that 'gets your heart racing.'
That's where Rossi crashed in qualifying, thus consigning himself to twelfth on the grid. As we've come to expect,
it didn't stop him cutting through the field, although he did later say that he didn't think he'd have caught Casey
no matter where he qualified. The Doc was lucky to avoid the flying Alex de Angelis on the first lap and his charge
came to a temporary halt when he got with the other Yamahas of Jorge Lorenzo and James Toseland.

The Briton, at last riding on a track he really knew, gave as good as he got, re-passing Rossi in a heart-stopping
move at turn one. The frantic fight for fourth provided much of the afternoon's entertainment once Rossi had set off
after Nicky. The final sort out at Honda Hairpin on the last lap after Lorenzo had escaped saw Nakano, who had been
sitting on the back of the group watching, get past Toseland and Dovizioso. Andrea blamed a 'too aggressive' move by
James, who wasn't pleased by finishing sixth again despite it being the best we've seen him ride in a GP.

Phillip Island always sorts the men from the boys, it is by common consent the finest track we go to--especially
now that Assen has been emasculated. It is not a coincidence that the three men on the rostrum were all World Champions.