Stoner salutes 'fantastic' finish

The 2007 world champion started from pole position and, after dropping behind Dani Pedrosa off the line, grabbed the lead back before the end of the first lap and pulled away to take a commanding win.

The result allowed him to cement his second place in the world championship, behind Valentino Rossi.

"We couldn't ask for much more than to finish the season like this," said Stoner.

"It's been a very difficult season for us, there's been a lot of ups, a lot of downs, but we were competitive here last year and in the warm-up everything felt good and we were ready for this. It's fantastic to finish like this."

Stoner said that he was worried late in the race that he may not hang on to win, after he began to struggle with the broken scaphoid bone in his wrist.

"I started running wide a little bit, and I was lucky that I had a bit of a buffer at the front, because then I had to start carrying more corner speed," he told the BBC.

"I couldn't brake at the same points - by the end of the race I was braking probably 50, 60 metres earlier going into the first turn than I was at the beginning. It was hard work to keep the lap times going, but we managed to do it."