Stoner beats Rossi to Qatar victory

The young Australian, whose best result in the top class was second in Turkey last year, started his first race for the works Ducati team from second place, but by the end of the first lap managed to take the lead from Rossi's pole-starting Yamaha.

Laps 4 to 7 were very similar in that Rossi would overtake Stoner in the twisty part of the track, while the latter would regain the lead by shooting through on the front straight, also thanks to the better horsepower of his Desmosedici.

In the meantime, Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa often edged ahead of Rossi on the main straight, with the Italian always braking later than the Spaniard to hold on to his spot.

Loris Capirossi took the sister Ducati bike to fifth and looked like being able to run with the best, but his day ended early when he crashed on the last corner on lap 7. That was the same spot where Randy de Puniet crashed his Kawasaki on the following lap.

In the space of a lap and a half a third driver fell off, this being Carlos Checa crashing at the hairpin. The incident allowed World Champion Nicky Hayden into eighth place.

Mid-way through the race, Rizla Suzuki rider John Hopkins was running in fourth place behind Stoner, Rossi and Pedrosa. The American briefly exchanged places with Pedrosa when the latter missed a corner apex, but the Spaniard was back in front just a few corners later.

The leading pack was by now 3.5 seconds ahead of fifth-placed Colin Edwards in the other Yamaha. However, the Pedrosa-Hopkins duo soon started losing touch from the leading pair of Stoner and Rossi, the latter at the end of the race being almost six seconds ahead.

With three laps to go, Rossi overtook Stoner one more time, but the latter regained the lead on the straight and never looked back, opening a gap large enough to prevent further attacks and setting the fastest lap of the race on the very last one.

"I can't really say much. The team has been working great, the tyres I was really happy with all weekend," the Australian told BBC television. "For sure in the race we struggled on some parts of the track but used what we had to our advantage. The bike got better towards the end, I did my fastest lap at the end."

On the battle with Rossi Stoner commented: "I was thinking about the pressure from him, but he is no different from any other rider. It doesn't matter who is behind you: if they are capable of going that quick they are capable of getting past you."

Pedrosa and Hopkins had a close finish in third and fourth place, with Marco Melandri in fifth and Edwards in sixth.

After the end of the race Hopkins commented: "We just wanted to get a good start and start pushing from the beginning, got stuck in from the beginning. Considering how we came in this weekend I am pretty happy with it."

Chris Vermeulen took seventh, while Hayden had to settle for eighth, after exchanging position with Alex Barros a couple of times in the last few laps.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider             Make      Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    43:02.788
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    +   2.838
 3.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     +   8.530
 4.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    +   9.071
 5.  Marco Melandri    Honda     +  17.433
 6.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    +  18.647
 7.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    +  22.916
 8.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     +  23.057
 9.  Alex Barros       Ducati    +  25.961
10.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     +  28.456
11.  Alex Hofmann      Ducati    +  35.029
12.  Olivier Jacque    Kawasaki  +  42.948
13.  K.Roberts Jr.     KR        +  42.977
14.  Toni Elias        Honda     +  42.989
15.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    +  51.639
16.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    +  57.853

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider             Make      On Lap
     Andrew Pitt       Ilmor       15
     Carlos Checa      Honda        8
     Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki     7
     Loris Capirossi   Ducati       6

Fastest Lap: Casey Stoner, 1:56.528 on lap 22