Casey Stoner delivered a familiar sight as he opened the MotoGP season with a dominant win under the floodlights in Qatar.
The 2007 world champion has now won the first race of the year on the Losail circuit in four of the last five years and claimed victory on his debut ride for the Repsol Honda team.
Defending champion Jorge Lorenzo was 3.440 seconds back in second place with Stoner’s team-mate Dani Pedrosa rounding out the top three. Third factory Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso was fourth ahead of fellow Italian Marco Simoncelli.
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Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi marked his first race for Ducati with a seventh-placed finish while British debutant Cal Crutchlow was a solid 11th on his first race since moving up from the World Superbike Championship. The Press Association
Stoner, who dominated the practice sessions before topping qualifying, made his move at the halfway stage to leave last year’s championship rivals to battle over the podium places as he clinched his 24th race win in motorcycling’s elite class.
“I couldn’t have dreamt of a better start to the season, but I’m not going to get carried away and will continue to work,” he told reporters.
“The first lap was very tough because of how my bike reacted with a full tank. Afterwards it was much better, and the bike improved with every lap until the end.” CNN International
Pos. Num. Rider Team Time/Gap 1 27 Casey STONER Repsol Honda Team 42'38.569 2 1 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha Factory Racing 3.44 3 26 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 5.051 4 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSORepsol Honda Team 5.942 5 58 Marco SIMONCELLISan Carlo Honda Gresini 7.358 6 11 Ben SPIES Yamaha Factory Racing 10.468 7 46 Valentino ROSSI Ducati Team 16.431 8 5 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 26.293 9 69 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 27.416 10 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA San Carlo Honda Gresini 28.92 11 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW Monster Yamaha Tech 3 34.539 12 8 Hector BARBERA Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP 34.829 13 17 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 37.957 Not Classified 24 Toni ELIAS LCR Honda MotoGP 4 Laps 65 Loris CAPIROSSI Pramac Racing Team 21 Laps 14 Randy DE PUNIET Pramac Racing Team 0 Lap
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