Stoner takes first win of 2010

The Australian Ducati rider got the better of championship leader Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) in a first lap duel for the lead, before asserting his superiority at the front.

Spanish home hero Dani Pedrosa took up the chase, but could not get close enough to seriously challenge Stoner, who looked calm and assured at the head of the field despite crashing in the warm-up this morning.

Pedrosa survived a massive moment at Turn 1 on the first lap, which forced him to back out of the throttle to avoid a high-side and dropped him to fifth.

Chasing a hat-trick of MotoGP wins, Pedrosa used the superior speed of his Honda machine to ease his way back though the field and by the end of the third lap he was up into second.

These two riders were the only ones able to lap consistently below 1m50s and Pedrosa got within 0.6 seconds of Stoner mid-way though the race, but the charge took the best from his tyres and the Spaniard gave up the chase in the closing stages - eventually finishing five seconds adrift.

Stoner's Ducati team-mate Nicky Hayden shadowed Lorenzo throughout the race, before mugging his rival for the final podium spot by chucking it down the inside in the tight left hander leading onto the back straight on the final lap.

A similarly close fight between American Ben Spies (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Pedrosa's Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was settled when Dovizioso crashed out on the final lap.

The Italian's misfortune allowed multiple MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi to complete the top six. Rossi made a good start, but ran wide at the first turn and fell back as low as ninth in the early stages of the race, before fighting his way back to seventh, which became sixth when Dovizioso fell off.

Marco Simoncelli (Gresini Honda), Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki), Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda) and Aleix Espargaro (Pramac Ducati) rounded out the top 10.

Texan Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) endured a frustrating race in his 100th MotoGP start. He finished 12th.

Pos  Rider             Team                 Time/Gap
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             42m16.530s
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                + 5.148s
 3.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati               + 9.496s
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha               + 9.580s
 5.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha       + 13.771s
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha              + 27.330s
 7.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda       + 28.511s
 8.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki              + 35.254s
 9.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda       + 35.393s
10.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati       + 35.467s
11.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati        + 35.522s
12.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha       + 45.360s
13.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda   + 48.319s
14.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati       + 58.047s

Retirements:

     Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              22 laps
     Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda          15 laps