PHILLIP ISLAND: Italian Marco Melandri riding a Honda won the Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island on Sunday.
Melandri won an incident-packed race by 9.699 seconds from Australian Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) and Italy's five-time world MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha).
Rossi kept his title hopes alive with three races left when he finished two positions ahead of championship leader American Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda).
Rossi excited the crowd when he slipped past Sete Gibernau in the home straight to take third place on the podium.
The race was one of the most dramatic on the Phillip Island circuit, with rain falling in the early stages of the race and forcing riders to come into the pits to change to wet weather tyres to complete the race.
The next MotoGP takes place in Motegi, Japan, on September 24 with the final two races in Portugal and Spain.
