In the end it looked like a walk in the park forCasey Stoner, the Honda rider dominating his home race for the fifth straight year, winning the 2011 MotoGP World Championship in the process.

"I tried my very best to win the championship here in Australia, on my birthday - Stoner said afterward - It's hard to explain how I feel right now.  Nobody believed in me during my first world championship.  It seemed impossible.  Now things are different, and we won with this bike because we knew exactly what to do.  With Ducati I was the lead rider, and everyone was expecting me to pull something out of thin air.  This time we worked calmly as a team, without feeling too much pressure or pushing too hard.  Even on my bad days I still finished on the podium."

With a strong breeze blowing and darkening skies, the MotoGP race commenced with a rearranged grid following the withdrawl of both Yamaha Factory riders and Héctor Barberá’s replacement rider,Damian Cudlin on the Mapfre Aspar team. Jorge Lorenzo withdrew after a high side in the morning warm up left him with a severely injured finger that will require surgery, while Ben Spies is still mildly concussed after a crash in qualifying on Saturday.  Cudlin withdrew due to injuries from a crash in Saturday morning practice.

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) and Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) followed Stoner into turn one, with the Italian making an early move on Hayden to take second. Simoncelli then spent the remainder of the race tussling with Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), beating his compatriot across the line for his best MotoGP finish of second.

"I'm very happy with the result - Sic added - It was a difficult race, but I just kept pushing and running my pace.  I took a big chance with Dovizioso in turn 1 on the final lap, but after leading for the entire race I wasn't going to let him steal second place from me.  I stole it from him."

Read the rest of the article at GPone.