2006 Season

He scored his first MotoGP pole in Turkey after a stunning ride in the wet, coincidentally one round after fellow Australian rookie Casey Stoner scored his maiden pole. After the Sachsenring race he was 14th in the championship on 46 points, 4 places and 18 points behind Hopkins. At the following round at Laguna Seca (a track he knows from his World Superbike days) he took pole position, one of only 2 non-Americans in the first 2 rows of the grid. He had a technical problem while running 3rd. In his home race at Philip Island he was the fastest man once the field had changed to wet tyres, and charged through the field to finish 2nd.