MZ Racing’s Anthony West will headline the Australian act as the Moto2 World Championship arrives at Phillip Island, enjoying a positive run of results in the last two rounds and will hope to continue the trend at his home GP.

There will also be two wild card riders at Phillip Island with Australians Kris McLaren on a Suter and Blake Leigh-Smith on an FTR, both riding for BRP Racing.

The Moto2 class remains the tightest of the three world championship categories with just three rounds of the 2011 season left, and the two riders hoping to take glory will this weekend enter battle once more.

Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) took the lead of the championship for the first time this season following his second-placed finish at Motegi, and now leads rival for the title Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) by a single point as their fight for supremacy enters a thrilling three-race deciding final stretch.

Each rider has started from pole position seven times this year, adding another dimension to the closeness of their current situation, although it is Márquez who has the upper hand in terms of recent results having placed inside the top two in the last eight consecutive races – six of those having been wins.

Andrea Iannonne’s (Speed Master) bid to secure third place in this season’s championship has hit a rich vein of form in recent rounds, the Italian taking four podiums in the last five races, including victory last time out in Japan, whilst Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) and Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project) are not far behind and are themselves separated by just six points.

Rookie Bradley Smith (Tech 3) and Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) are level on points in sixth and seventh respectively, the Swiss rider fresh from a first podium since the second round of the season after his result in Japan.

There then stands a significant points gap to Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX) in eighth position, who is having an impressive debut season in the category, with Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing) and Aleix Espargaró (Pons HP 40) completing the top ten as it stands.

Julián Simón remains sidelined by injury as he continues to recover from further surgery to his leg, with Iván Moreno standing in for the Spaniard on the Mapfre Aspar team this weekend. Sergio Gadea (Desguaces La Torre G22) will be an absentee too as he continues to recover following a heavy crash at Motegi.