Dani Pedrosa could not have wished up a better way to win his third consecutive Worlfd Championship title.

The Movistar rider made history again today as he clinched his seventh victory of the season after a brilliant race that saw him finally bury the memory of his crash here two years ago, when he broke both ankles. Last year he took fourth place to seal his first 250cc title but this time he was crowned on the top step of the podium.

The World Champion remained calm under pressure and stuck with the intense pace set by Sebastián Porto from the start, studying his movements and pulling out a perfect final lap that secured the title after a crash for Casey Stoner left him out of the race on the fourth lap. Dani’s victory also goes into the record books as Honda’s 600^th in their history. Hiroshi Aoyama finished in sixth place after battling throughout the race with Héctor Barberá and Andrea Dovizioso. The Japanese rider did not make a good start from the second row and struggled in the race but remains fourth overall.

DANI PEDROSA (1º): “Today has been a fantastic day for us, not only because we have won the race but also, of course, we’ve retained the title. It is very satisfying and to win it at Phillip Island makes it even more special. Not many people expected me to win the title today but we did our job and knew how to make the most of Stoner’s crash. I think I rode an intelligent and conservative race behind Porto for almost the entire distance and towards the end the team saw me sliding around a few times and showed me the OK sign on the pit board for second place. Porto was very fast but my bike was also running really well and I decided to make a plan to pass Sebas in the slipstream at the end. If I passed him then great and if not then second place wouldn’t have been a bad result. I didn’t want to risk any more than was necessary and I even made a mistake in the final corner because I was being so careful – I got too close and had to pull out earlier than I wanted. It was the first time in the whole race I hadn’t slipstreamed him there and the bike wasn’t quite as fast as I thought, but luckily it was enough to win by a couple of thousandths of a second. I want to say thanks to everybody, especially my team, who have worked very hard, the people who support me, and my fans. They all deserve it.”

HIROSHI AOYAMA (6^th): “I can’t be happy with the way I raced today. This is a very difficult circuit and I haven’t managed to get the better of it all weekend. I wasn’t able to make up any positions at the start and it was impossible to follow the pace of the front group. I’m a little disappointed because I expected to do better today but I also feel happy for Dani. It was difficult for him but once again he showed what he is capable of.”

GP de AUSTRALIA
1. Dani Pedrosa (Esp/Honda), 39'18"736
2. Sebastián Porto (Arg/Aprilia) 39'18"222
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Esp/Honda) 39'26"869
4. Héctor Barberá (Esp/Honda) 39'43"033
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Ita/Honda) 39'43"063
6. Hiroshi Aoyama (Jap/Honda) 39'43"067

MUNDIAL 250 cc.
1º Daniel Pedrosa, 264 p.
2º Casey Stoner, 213 p.
3º Andrea Dovizioso, 171 p.
4º Hiroshi Aoyama, 154 p.