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2006-09-17 Melandri takes wet victory at Phillip Island
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 Marco Melandri took his third victory of the season at Phillip Island in dramatic race which started in dry conditions and ended up in wet. This was first MotoGP race in which new regulations about wet races have came to practice.
Initial leader of the race was Shinya Nakano, who had superb start and advantage of over one second at the end of the first lap. Nakano continued great ride through first few laps of the race and made gap to others to over three seconds. On the other hand, main championship pretenders, Rossi and Hayden, both had bad start and lost lot of places, ending first lap in distant 10th (Rossi) and 16th (Hayden). However, Rossi soon found his rhythm and stormed through the field to second place, when rain striked.
First riders that came into the box to switch their bikes were Ellison and Cardoso, and soon all other riders, except Nakano, did the same. Nakano swapped his bike lap later, and returned to the track behind Gibernau, who has shown great ride both on dry and wet. Nakano soon started going backwards, eventually finishing race in 8th place.
However, Gibernau was not lone in the lead for a long time - soon he was joined by charging Vermeulen and Melandri. Melandri soon overtook Gibernau and led race the the third victory of the season. Australian Chris Vermeulen, who started from 16th place on the grid, once again shown great determination and skills in wet race, and finished race in second place, on his first ever MotoGP podium.
Rossi and Hayden found themselves in similar situation in wet conditions as they were in dry - they were riding mid-pack, far from the race leaders, only this time they were together. Duo of championship pretenders slowly made their way through the field, with Rossi managing to overtake Gibernau for 3rd place in last corner of last lap, leaving Spaniard between him and Hayden. Rossi shawed another 4 points from Hayden in championship battle, going to second place in general standings, and now being 21 point behind with three races remaining.
Third championship pretender, Dani Pedrosa, had great start of the dry race, making his way to the leading group before rain started. He once again shown that he can not ride properly in wet conditions, and finished race in 15th place, picking only one point and droping to 4th in championship.
Casey Stoner edged for Capirossi for 6th place. Nakano must be one of riders that are angry on the rain, as he finally ended race in 8th place. Elias finished in 9th, with Makoto Tamada completing top 10 finishers.
GMC Australian Grand Prix - Complete race results
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