Stoner secures home victory

Stoner jumped into the lead at the start and never looked back, absorbing pressure from Nicky Hayden for the first ten laps before Hayden began to fall away from the Australian.

With Dani Pedrosa falling at turn two on lap one, the win almost guarantees Stoner second place in the championship.

Behind Stoner, it seemed certain that Hayden would finish second. But Valentino Rossi, recovering from starting twelfth after his qualifying crash, grabbed the place at the start of the last lap as Hayden's tyres faded in the closing laps.

Rossi made early progress to be fifth by the start of lap four, and fourth two laps later, but then he came upon James Toseland. Lap after lap, the two ran nose-to-tail with Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso and Shinya Nakano just behind.

On lap eight Rossi moved ahead, only for Toseland to take the place back a lap later. Lap twelve saw Rossi move into third into turn one, but Toseland immediately took the place back into turn two.

Finally, on lap 13, just short of half-distance, Rossi made the move stick and began his successful chase of Hayden.

With Rossi gone, the pack continued to battle hard. Toseland remained at the head of it until three laps to go, with shuffling over the closing laps ending with Lorenzo in fourth ahead of Nakano, Toseland and Dovizioso, the four bikes covered by less than 1.5 seconds.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  40:56.643
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  +   6.504
 3.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  +   7.205
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  +  11.500
 5.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  +  11.914
 6.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  +  12.243
 7.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  +  12.780
 8.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  +  25.920
 9.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  +  26.037
10.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  +  26.799
11.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  +  27.027
12.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  +  47.808
13.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  +  48.333
14.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  +  48.899
15.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  +  48.935
16.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  +1:11.767

Retirements:

     Rider             Bike           Laps
     Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (B)    0
     Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)    0