Stoner takes dominant Dutch TT win

After his Donington Park victory, this was the second win in six days for the Australian, and his third of the season, enabling him to reduce the gap to the top of the standings from 45 to 29 points.

But the championship lead has changed hands from Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi to Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa, with the former classified eleventh after a first-lap crash and now languishing four points behind the latter, who finished today's race in second.

The start saw Pedrosa making a perfect getaway from second on the grid to pip pole-setter Stoner at the first corner, but before the end of the lap Stoner was back in front and never looked back, with his gap to Pedrosa increasing throughout the race to be over eleven seconds by the end.

Meanwhile, Rossi had a bad start from third and dropped to seventh behind LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet. As the Italian tried to recover he lost the rear at the second corner and crashed into the Frenchman, taking both out in the gravel.

But while de Puniet retired with an injury on his left thigh, Rossi rejoined the track dead last and ended the first lap half a minute behind Stoner and 25 seconds behind the next man up the road, Marco Melandri in 13th place.

The Ducati rider, who was 12th by then thanks to Kawasaki's Anthony West crashing on lap eight, was caught and overtaken by Rossi on lap 20. The seven-time champion then went on to overtake Toni Elias's Alice Ducati three laps later.

Before the first lap was over Alex de Angelis also crashed his Honda Gresini and broke his left little finger.

While Stoner was opening a gap to the factory Hondas of Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards began to make up places after being delayed by the de Puniet-Rossi crash.

The Tech 3 Yamaha rider was tenth after lap two and fourth by lap 15, seven seconds behind Hayden. The Texan within six laps managed to reduce the gap to the Kentucky man to just over four seconds, a gap that stayed about the same until the end.

But just when Hayden was about to score the maiden podium for HRC's new pneumatic-valve engine, he appeared to run out of fuel while on the finish straight and had to concede third position to Edwards.

JiR Team Scot Honda's Andrea Dovizioso classified fifth after resisting a late surge by the works Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo, who finished just over a second behind the Italian.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  42:12.337
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)   + 11.310
 3.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)   + 17.125
 4.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)   + 20.477
 5.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)   + 27.346
 6.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)   + 28.608
 7.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)   + 32.330
 8.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)   + 34.892
 9.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)   + 38.566
10.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)   + 38.817
11.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)   + 46.025
12.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)   + 48.213
13.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)   + 59.594

Retirements:

     Rider             Bike            Laps
     Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)   6
     Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)   0
     Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)   0