The second day of the GMC Australian Grand Prix finished with qualifying practice this afternoon, which saw Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet claim a second row start and Anthony West, 10th spot on the grid for tomorrow's race.

De Puniet completed 25 laps in qualifying and succeeded in running a staggering 1'30.713 lap on race tyres: bearing in mind Casey Stoner's leading lap, on combined times, of all three earlier practices was 1'31.132, this bodes very well for the 26-year-old Frenchman.

He put in his best lap on the first of his three Bridgestone qualifying tyres, with a time of 1'30.110, putting him on the second row behind Nicky Hayden and Loris Capirossi and just 0.909 seconds behind pole sitter, Dani Pedrosa. He had hoped for an even better position but, as always, it's the race that counts and de Puniet's feeling justifiably confident. At the last round at Motegi, in Japan, he enjoyed the taste of success on the second step of the podium and will be hoping for more of the same in Australia tomorrow.

Rizla Suzuki's Cal Crutchlow was fifth, just 2/10ths of a second away from the fastest rider in today's practice sessions for the final round of the 2008 British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch Indy circuit in Kent.

He tried both his Rizla Suzuki race bikes and made minor changes to suspension and gearing in the dry afternoon session after a damp morning. "I need to marry the best bits of both my bikes," enthused Crutchlow. "One bike has a stronger engine, the other is better on corner entry. If we combine the best aspects of both, then I can cut my times significantly.

"I am within a whisker of the fastest rider and really upbeat for this weekend. I want the podium so bad I can taste it."

Phillip Island greeted the MotoGP paddock with a full spectrum of unstable conditions today, as the weather switched back and forth between heavy rain and bright sunshine. Temperatures remained cool throughout the day thanks to a cold wind off the Bass Straight and it was a delicate day of set-up work for the Fiat Yamaha Team. Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards, both sporting a one-off red and white livery on their M1s inspired by Fiat's famous 'Abarth' racing brand, finished the day fourth and 15th in the combined standings.

After an extremely wet start to the day a dry line had begun to appear by the start of MotoGP practice, although it began to rain heavily again in the last twenty minutes of the session. Rossi made a good start to the day and finished the first session third, with Edwards in 11th. This afternoon's practice was a much brighter and more stable affair weather-wise, save a few spots of rain mid-way through, and the riders had the chance to start working towards an effective race setting to suit the high-speed nature of the track.

Dramatically fluctuating weather conditions marked the start of the Australian Grand Prix today as MotoGP returned to Phillip Island for the 16th round of the world championship.

The first practice session, held after a prolonged morning downpour, saw the riders head out on to the 4.45km track with Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet and Anthony West showing early promise ahead of Sunday's 27 lap race. Both were soon featuring at or near the top of the time sheets before the heavens opened again, prompting virtually the whole field to return to the pits to sit out the worst of it.

The afternoon session was run on a dry track and de Puniet took his 800cc Ninja ZX-RR to fifth fastest on combined times by the end of the hour, fractionally behind Valentino Rossi with a gap between them of a mere 0.062 seconds. The 26-year-old Frenchman's time was also within a second of the day's leading rider, newly-crowned world champion, Casey Stoner.

Rizla Suzuki racer Cal Crutchlow has a final chance to record a first and much sought after podium finish in his maiden Superbike season when the British Championship visits Brands Hatch in Kent for the 2008 finale this Sunday.

'I have been getting ever closer to the podium since August'; explained Cal, 21, from Coventry. 'I am so close to tasting champagne that it is all that I think about; I want it and think it would be a fitting finish to my first Superbike season.

'My Rizla Suzuki GSX-R1000 is in excellent shape and has hardly altered for the last few rounds, we have hit upon a setting that works and that has given me great confidence. Rizla Suzuki and my technical crew deserve a podium and I will be giving it my all to achieve it for them.'

Suzuki dominated the Supercross Masters event at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Queensland with Team Shift Motul Suzuki rising star Lawson Bopping winning the Pro Lites class while Troy Carroll piloted his RM-Z450 to victory in the Pro Open class and Suzuki hero Daryl Hurley capping off the night with a Pro Open podium finish.

After a difficult start to the evening, which included a crash in his qualifying heats, Bopping was lucky to make it into the 12-lap Pro Lites Final, but from the moment the gates dropped he was in a league of his own.

Bopping took the holeshot and charged away from the field on the Team Shift Motul Suzuki RM-Z250 and remained unchallenged to the chequered flag.

The Fiat Yamaha Team head for the ante-penultimate installment of this year's MotoGP World Championship in Australia this weekend in the knowledge that the title has slipped from their grasp but with the clear focus of race wins and improved performance from the YZR-M1 machine to come over the last three rounds. Whilst the long-term target of the team has switched to a stronger challenge for honors in 2008, there is still the important matter of three race victories and the runner-up spot in the championship up for grabs over the next month.

It was largely with this in mind that Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards put in a day of testing following the last round at Motegi, with the pair completing valuable tyre work alongside Michelin and Rossi getting the chance to try two new prototype chassis. The breathtaking scenery of Phillip Island will certainly put the bike and riders to the sternest of tests, with its sweeping and flowing nature making for the ultimate challenge of machine control and throttle accuracy, not to mention the sheer bravery required from the rider.

KTM Repsol's Marc Coma came, saw and conquered the desert to emerge victorious in the tenth Pharaons Rally Egypt, his third consecutive victory of the season and one that consolidates his lead in the current world championship.

Clearly at home with the desert sands under the wheels of his KTM machine, Coma's victory was also a hat trick for the desert race, which he has now won for three consecutive seasons. Coma's superb and impressive ride was also the best possible preparation for the Dakar classic in January, where his is out to reclaim the victory denied him last season when he was injured in the closing stages of the race.

In what was an excellent event for the KTM Repsol team, Coma's young factory team-mate Jordi Viladoms was second and Italian Oscar Polli won the 450 cc category on his KTM 450 to underline the dominance of KTM in the event.

Max Biaggi raced to second place in today's final event of the 2007 World Superbike season at Magny Cours in France and lifted third place in the series.

The Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider, second before the event, 29 points behind series leader and newly-crowned champion James Toseland, was pipped to the second step on the championship rostrum by Nori Haga, who won both races today and finished just two points behind Toseland.

In race one, Biaggi fought his way up to sixth place after ending the first lap 15th after luckily avoiding a first corner incident involving Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) and James Toseland (Honda). And in race two, he took runner-up spot after a tremendous battle with Troy Corser (Yamaha).

Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) brought the Ducati 999 era to an end as he finished second and fifth in the final two races of the year in front of 75,000 spectators at Magny-Cours in France. With both wins going to Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) and the title in the hands of James Toseland (Honda), the 38 year-old Australian concluded the 2007 championship in fourth place on 372 points.

Team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi had a disappointing end to his period in the factory Ducati Xerox Team with a nasty high-speed crash at the start of race 1. Lorenzo suffered bruising to his right shoulder, elbow and knee, which forced him to miss race 2. The Manufacturers' title went to Yamaha, with Ducati in second place, but there was satisfaction for the Italian manufacturer today as 19 year-old Niccol, Canepa clinched the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup with the new twin-cylinder Ducati 1098S in its first year of competition.