Capirossi wins, Stoner takes title

Capirossi pitted early for dry tyres and made good use of them, taking over the lead when the early race leaders finally swapped their wets for dry tyres. With a comfortable lead over his closest rivals, Capirossi kept his head and took an easy win, his third in a row at the Motegi circuit.

But the biggest story of the day was his young teammate, Casey Stoner, who secured the 2007 MotoGP title with a sixth-place finish. A good start had Stoner well-placed early, but he then fell into the clutches of Rossi, his Italian rival passing him on lap 12.

But when Rossi's switch to dry tyres caused the Italian problems, all Stoner had to do was finish in the points, and that was what he did, even giving up a position to Melandri in the closing laps as he concentrated on making the finish and making no mistakes. Rossi finished the race in 13th position.

The start of the race took place under cloudy skies, the track damp but slowly drying out. A great start by Stoner saw him move up into fourth into turn one behind Dani Pedrosa, Toni Elias and Nicky Hayden.

Through lap one the order shuffled, with Pedrosa leading from a charging Anthony West, Stoner in third ahead of Nicky Hayden and Kousuke Akiyoshi, Valentino Rossi down in seventh position.

West took the lead on lap two just as it was announced his creeping on the grid had earned him a ride-through penalty, while Stoner moved ahead of Pedrosa as they began lap three. Melandri was now moving his way through the front of the field, taking Akiyoshi and Pedrosa to move into third position.

As they completed lap four West took his penalty, dropping to 14th, handing the lead to countryman Stoner ahead of Melandri, Randy de Puniet, Pedrosa and Rossi who was beginning to show some speed.

A moment for Randy de Puniet on lap five dropped him to seventh, while closer to the front Rossi took third from Pedrosa as Melandri moved past Stoner into the lead. As the track continued to dry, riders began to pit to switch to bikes with drier tyres.

Hayden came in on lap seven, Elias and de Puniet on lap eight and Capirossi on lap nine. The leaders remained on track however, worried that the dark skies might deposit rain on a drying track surface.

As he remained on track on wets, Stoner began to struggle, dropping away from Melandri and into the hands of Rossi. Lap 12 and he could hold out the Italian no more, Rossi moving into second and quickly closing on leader Melandri.

Lap 14 of 24 saw two of the leaders decide enough was enough, Melandri and Stoner pitting for new bikes with dry tyres, Stoner having just been passed by Pedrosa. A lap later and Rossi followed suit, Pedrosa unable to make the change after a huge highside ended his race.

Rossi resumed ahead of Melandri and Stoner, but like every rider before him, lost ground as he brought his tyres up to temperature. Running wide near the end of the lap but staying on track, he decided to visit the pits again just a lap after changing tyres. His crew looked over the bike, sending him back out on to the circuit.

Having made an early switch to slicks, Loris Capirossi now comfortably led the race, from de Puniet, Elias, Sylvain Guintoli and Casey Stoner. Rossi's day got worse when he had an off-track excursion at the same corner he'd run wide at a lap earlier, dropping him down to 15th position.

As the laps wound down Stoner rode a conservative race, allowing Melandri to take fifth place on lap 20 as the battle between Elias and Guintoli heated up for third position. Guintoli briefly moved into third on lap 21, only to immediately run wide and gift the position back to Elias.

Elias managed to open enough of a gap to fend off Guintoli's charge, but it was Ducati's day as Capirossi took the victory and Stoner took the title.

Classified:

Pos  Rider             Bike            Time
 1.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    (B)   47:05.483
 2.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  (B)   +  10.853
 3.  Toni Elias        Honda     (B)   +  11.526
 4.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    (D)   +  12.192
 5.  Marco Melandri    Honda     (B)   +  28.569
 6.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)   +  31.179
 7.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)   +  50.001
 8.  Alex Barros       Ducati    (B)   +  52.343
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)   +  53.629
10.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    (B)   +  59.715
11.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)   +1:02.804
12.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    (D)   +1:09.313
13.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (M)   +1:09.699
14.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)   +1:11.735
15.  Shinichi Ito      Ducati    (B)   +1:12.290
16.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (M)   +1:32.979
17.  Akira Yanagawa    Kawasaki  (B)   +   1 lap
18.  Carlos Checa      Honda     (M)   +   1 lap

Not classified:

     Rider             Bike           Laps
     Kousuke Akiyoshi  Suzuki    (B)  20
     Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     (M)  14
     Kurtis Roberts    KR        (M)  1