Stoner surprised by dominance

The Ducati rider won by nearly 10 seconds ahead of Chris Vermeulen, and he feels that his consistency was the main reason for the big gap.

"The last two races have been on circuits where we weren't too confident," Stoner told Italia1 television. "We thought we could do a great race, but not this great.

"We were doing some very fast lap times, and in the race I was just able to reel them off lap after lap."

Stoner said that he was slightly concerned about the pace of Vermeulen, who finished in a comfortable second place.

"It wasn't so easy in the beginning," he said. "I pulled away from Dani (Pedrosa), then Chris got past Dani and he closed down the gap.

"I was a little bit worried because I thought Chris had very good pace. But I just kept with the pace I had.

"I started to increase the gap slowly but surely, and in the end we had quite a big advantage."

Stoner's victory has increased his championship lead to 44 points over Valentino Rossi.