Beautiful weather greeted the MotoGP travelling circus as the World Championship riders and their teams reconvened at Australia’s iconic Phillip Island circuit on Thursday. Up there with the very best circuits on the MotoGP calendar in terms of natural beauty and its popularity with the Grand Prix fraternity, the Aussie venue promises to produce another spectacular weekend of MotoGP action despite the possible rain forecast for Friday and Saturday, a feature of so many GPs this year. After the laid-back build-up to this weekend’s action, the more serious business of the pre-event press conference saw last year’s race-winner and title-winner Casey Stoner joined by fellow Australians Chris Vermeulen and Anthony West, in addition to newly crowned 2008 MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi and 2007 championship runner-up Dani Pedrosa. After his enthralling title-clinching victory at Motegi on Sunday, Rossi will attempt to maintain the high spirits as he looks to fend off the challenges from Stoner and Pedrosa on-track as the weekend progresses. The Italian six-time MotoGP title-winner commented, ‘I had a nice celebration in Japan with my friends and the fan-club from Tavullia, but on Monday our test with the new Yamaha M1 for 2009 was cancelled due to rain so now we have to wait until after Valencia to try it. Phillip Island is on the very top level as a track, with places like Mugello and Barcelona, so I want to enjoy myself this weekend and close the season well in the last three races.’ Local favourite Stoner added, ‘Driving into the circuit this morning it brought back a lot of good memories and it is really nice to be riding at home. In terms of my chances I think the wrist is ok, but we need to work hard to set the bike up properly before Sunday, so that I don’t get tired during the race like I did last weekend.’ Earlier in the day Thursday’s preliminary activities commenced at 10am at the nearby Penguin Parade, with Suzuki star Vermeulen releasing a penguin that had been recovering from illness in the Phillip Island Wildlife Hospital back into the wild. At midday the wildlife theme continued on neighbouring Churchill Island when a group of riders including Andrea Dovizioso, Mika Kallio, Marco Simoncelli, Mike di Meglio and Simone Corsi learned some farming skills with a Kelpie dog and the local farm manager, before meeting a baby lamb. The on-track activity gets underway with the normal 125cc free practice session at 9am tomorrow, followed by the opening MotoGP run at 10am and 250cc 11.15am.