Stoner dominates the Valencia GP

It was a rather uneventful 30-lap race where positions were pretty much settled after the first six laps and gaps started to widen thereafter.

Stoner made a good getaway from pole position but Pedrosa did better from the second slot to take the lead at the first corner. But the Ducati Marlboro rider fought back at the next curve, got back ahead, and never relinquished the lead again.

Pedrosa managed to keep his Repsol Honda close to Stoner for the first few laps, but by lap eight the gap had opened up to one second and would keep on increasing until the end, when it became four seconds.

This year's champion Rossi, after a difficult qualifying session that saw him starting tenth with his Fiat Yamaha, was seventh by the end of the first lap, fifth by lap five, and third on lap six, when he went by Tech 3's Colin Edwards and the factory Honda of Nicky Hayden.

On the same lap JiR Honda's Andrea Dovizioso stayed with Rossi and was himself able to overtake the two Americans to slot into fourth.

Rossi went on to finish almost nine seconds behind Stoner, with Dovizioso classified fourth a further three seconds back.

Two seconds down the road, Hayden took fifth, with Edwards trailing in sixth six seconds behind his countryman.

Honda Gresini's Shinya Nakano finished in seventh ahead of Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, who made a good recovery to finish eighth after a difficult weekend and a charge from outside the top ten in the race.

Loris Capirossi took his Rizla Suzuki to ninth place, with Alex de Angelis's Honda Gresini inheriting tenth after Marco Melandri made a mistake on the penultimate lap and dropped down to 16th after what had been a good race that saw him overtake several riders with his works Ducati.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  46:46.114
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (B)  +   3.390
 3.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  +  12.194
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  +  24.159
 5.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  +  26.232
 6.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  +  32.209
 7.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  +  34.571
 8.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  +  35.661
 9.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  +  38.228
10.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  +  47.583
11.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  +  52.107
12.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  +  52.350
13.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  +  52.833
14.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  +  53.227
15.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  +  53.411
16.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  +1:08.387
17.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  +1:11.181
18.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  +1:37.055