An extraordinary duel between team mates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo led to one of the most thrilling climaxes to a MotoGP event in years.
The top three riders all got off to good starts, running in qualifying order, Jorges Lorenzo initially opening out a gap over Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner for the first lap before they compacted together and were practically inseparable for the next two laps.
Behind them Randy de Puniet and Dani Pedrosa got blinding starts to ambush Andrea Dovizioso for 4th place with Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi also getting a flier from 11th to challenge the top six. Dovizioso soon reasserted himself, however, and took back 4th spot, while de Puniet fell backwards after the impressive start and ended up eight by the end.
At the front, the storm that threatened a three-bike pile up broke when Rossi finally squeezed past Lornzo for the lead three laps in. However if he had been expecting to power off into the distance he was mistaken, with not even a mistake by Lorenzo running wide and gifting Rossi an extra second being enough to prevent the local hero from getting right back into the fray.
Casey Stoner was valiantly staying with the lead duo; it was interesting to see how the Ducati’s familiar grunt down the long straights wasn’t in evidence, although on the other hand Stoner wasn’t dropped off in the slower, twistier sections as has traditionally been the case either. But he was clearly pushing the bike beyond its limits and finally the Yamaha duo left him for dead, and Stoner then had to battle Dovizioso to retain his podium place which he just about did – although he looked exhausted from the effort by the end of the 25 laps, explaining that an attack of ‘flu had worsened as the…

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