Casey Stoner emerged victorious from a wildly eventful and unpredictable Italian MotoGP, to end Valentino Rossi’s seven-year run of home wins here. But it was something of a lottery throughout, with at least half a dozen riders in contention for the win at various points of the race.
It threatened to be a disaster for polesitter Jorge Lorenzo, who was caught out by a slight shower and managed to slide off the wet track into the gravel trap on the sighting lap before the race even started. He had to return to the pits and change to the reserve bike: although it was quickly fitted with wet tyres, it still had the dry set-up for the anticipated mid-race changeover, and the problems with mixed tyres/set-up showed at the start when Lorenzo’s rear wheel just spun and spun while half the field streamed past him. Down to 8th before the first turn, the rest of the race seemed as though it was going to be damage limitation for him.
The best starts were by Casey Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso and Chris Vermeulen. Vermeulen is known as something of a wet specialist and proved it here, taking the lead from Stoner by the end of the first lap.
But this race was going to be all about the changing conditions: Vermeulen led while the track was still pretty damp, but as things started to dry off his lack of pace compared with the Ducati and Honda riders started to show and he dropped back at a fair rate of knots.
In these crossover conditions, it was actually Valentino Rossi (who had been circulating in fourth) who was coming on strong and finally broke into the lead; he brought Marco Melandri to the front with him, and as pit stops for a change to slicks loomed it…

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