Stoner dominates Turkish GP

The Ducati rider, however, showed that he needed no help in winning by opening a massive gap of almost eight seconds over Team Gresini's Toni Elias.

Eight of the top nine positions were taken by Bridgestone-shod runners, with the top Michelin rider being reigning world champion Nicky Hayden down in seventh place.

Two of the top Michelin runners, however, were out of the race before the first lap was over.

Dani Pedrosa didn't have a good getaway from his third spot on the grid, unlike the two Fiat Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards who were also starting from the front row.

After the first few corners Edwards lost two places to the Ducatis of Stoner and Loris Capirossi, while soon after that Rossi went wide on the grass and rejoined the race in fifth place, behind the Ducatis, the Rizla Suzuki of John Hopkins, and Elias.

At the next corner mayhem ensued, with  Kawasaki's Olivier Jacque touching Pedrosa while overtaking him, then also crashing into Edwards and making the three fall out of the race, taking Chris Vermeulen's Suzuki out as well.

The latter was the only one able to rejoin the track, albeit in 16th and last place. In the end he finished in 11th position.

"I have not had a really good chance to look at it," commented Edwards afterwards while speaking to the BBC. "Valentino ran off track and everyone thought they would outbrake him. I braked at the normal spot and I guess brakes don't exist for the guys behind me."

The American said he was lucky not to be injured. The same can't be said of Jacques and Pedrosa, however, with the former suffering a contusion on his coccyx, while the latter taking a bad blow on his chest and sternum.

In the next few laps Rossi managed to make up the lost ground, getting back into second place on lap nine. On the next lap, however, he was passed by Elias, who went a bit wide and almost made the Italian fall.

That was the beginning of the end of Rossi's race, his tyres quickly degrading badly. The rest of the day saw him losing position after position to finish down in tenth place.

While Stoner was opening a big gap to Elias, the Spaniard also build a bit of a gap over the rest, namely Hopkins and later Capirossi.

In the last few laps the battle was for third place, with Capirossi figthing against Alex Barros's d'Antin Ducati and Marco Melandri's Honda Gresini, with the three finishing in that order.

Hopkins ended the race in sixth, with his performance dropping off in the last laps. He was followed by Hayden's Honda, Randy de Puniet's Kawasaki, and Alex Hofmann's Ducati at the flag.

Results

Pos  Rider              Bike            Time
 1.  Casey Stoner       Ducati     42:02.850
 2.  Toni Elias         Honda        + 6.207
 3.  Loris Capirossi    Ducati       + 8.102
 4.  Alex Barros        Ducati       + 8.135
 5.  Marco Melandri     Honda        + 8.289
 6.  John Hopkins       Suzuki      + 10.186
 7.  Nicky Hayden       Honda       + 10.239
 8.  Randy de Puniet    Kawasaki    + 14.734
 9.  Alex Hofmann       Ducati      + 16.042
10.  Valentino Rossi    Yamaha      + 18.999
11.  Chris Vermeulen    Suzuki      + 26.249
12.  Carlos Checa       Honda       + 29.546
13.  Shinya Nakano      Honda       + 36.922
14.  Makoto Tamada      Yamaha      + 38.540
15.  Sylvain Guintoli   Yamaha      + 39.337
16.  Kenny Roberts Jr.  KR        + 1:09.336

Not classified:

     Daniel Pedrosa     Honda
     Olivier Jacque     Kawasaki
     Colin Edwards      Yamaha