Stoner dominates while Rossi retires

With only 125 points remaining to be won before the end of the season, the Marlboro Ducati rider will win the title at the next race in Portugal if he manages to outscore Fiat Yamaha's Rossi by a further 15 points and is not outscored by Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa by more than three points.

Within five laps Stoner's two remaining title rivals were out of the race, but this did not stop the Australian from stamping his authority at Misano and winning by almost five seconds over Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen.

The other Suzuki of John Hopkins also ended up on the podium by taking third, 11 seconds behind the sister bike.

Stoner had a good start from pole, but the two Suzukis had a great one with Hopkins slotting into second from fifth and eighth-on-the-grid Vermeulen fighting for third with Rossi, who started second.

But mayhem happened behind the leading four when Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet tried to overtake Pedrosa for fifth but went wide into turn two and crashed into the Spaniard.

As the two fell on the gravel, Pedrosa's teammate Nicky Hayden had to follow them through to take avoiding action, and while he managed to stay on his Honda, he rejoined the track in last place and ended the race 13th.

With three riders out of contention, Loris Capirossi on the other works Ducati jumped to fifth after starting 13th.

Capirossi was soon joined by Honda Gresini's Marco Melandri, who while he did not have as good a start from 12th (he was ninth at the end of the first lap), made up for it in the first five laps.

As Melandri overtook the man he will take the place of at Ducati next year on lap five, Rossi's new pneumatic-valves engine looked like seizing, thus allowing his fellow Italians through into fourth and fifth.

The seven-time champion, who grew up in the town of Tavullia just 10 km away from the track, managed to keep going very slowly to the pits and retired.

On the following lap Vermeulen managed to overtake Hopkins for second and began edging closer to Stoner.

For five laps it looked like the Suzuki could challenge the Ducati, with the two separated by less than a second. But on lap 12 Stoner set the fastest lap of the race and took three more tenths away from Vermeulen, followed by four more tenths on lap 13.

That's when the positions at the front fully stabilized, with Melandri then finishing in fourth place, Capirossi fifth and Honda LCR's Carlos Checa sixth.

Toni Elias took his Honda Gresini to seventh place, followed by Anthony West's Kawasaki in eight, Colin Edwards's Fiat Yamaha ninth and Shinya Nakano's Konica Minolta Honda rounding up the top ten.

Pos  Rider             Make      Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    44:34.720
 2.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    +   4.851
 3.  John Hopkins      Suzuki    +  16.002
 4.  Marco Melandri    Honda     +  22.737
 5.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati    +  24.787
 6.  Carlos Checa      Honda     +  34.986
 7.  Toni Elias        Honda     +  40.896
 8.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  +  41.774
 9.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    +  47.146
10.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     +  48.808
11.  Alex Hofmann      Ducati    +  49.299
12.  Sylvain Guintoli  Yamaha    +1:09.176
13.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     +1:20.424
14.  Makoto Tamada     Yamaha    +1:34.223
15.  Kurtis Roberts    KR        +   1 lap

Not classified:

     Rider             Make      Laps
     Alex Barros       Ducati    15
     Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    5
     Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki  0
     Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     0