If you had a sure bet on Casey Stoner to take his fourth consecutive win in Qatar, you would have lost a bundle, because the Marlboro Ducati rider threw it away with a crash on the fifth lap leaving Valentino Rossi to win the season opener and his 104th race victory.
Uncharacteristically Stoner had a bad start falling to fourth behind his team mate Nicky Hayden, while Valentino Rossi got off the line in first spot with Dani Pedrosa getting his usual lightning start, hot on the Italian’s tail and who would eventually take the lead on lap 2 but had to concede it on the third lap when Stoner put everyone behind him and began running away with the race and with a 2 second lead and an amazing 5th lap of 1′55″537 he then lost his front and binned his Ducati.
Rossi would eventually pass Pedrosa who began to fade, leaving his spot to team mate Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden.
Dovizioso would give Rossi a run for his money passing the reigning World Champion on lap 16, but Rossi wasn’t having any and re-passed Dovizioso, who then was passed by Nicky Hayden who was sticking to the Repsol Honda rider like a leech.
While all the action was concentrated on the front three riders, Jorge Lorenzo was catching up fast and with only two laps to go took third from Hayden and then second place from Dovizioso to make it a Yamaha 1-2 on the podium.
This left Dovizioso and Hayden to fight for third and what a fight.
With just a few turns to go on the final lap Hayden grabbed third, but Dovizioso on the final meters of the straight, slipstreamed Hayden and took the final podium by just 0.
011s.
Ben Spies who was eleventh on the grid rode to an excellent fifth place, showing Dani Pedrosa how they do it in Superbike, whileRandy de Puniet took sixth finishing in front of Dani Pedrosa.
Colin Edwards had a bad start dropping to eleventh but finally finished in the eighth spot.
Loris Capirossi riding his Rizla Suzuki with his special #300 number on the frontm celebrating his record 300th GP start came in 9th.
Hiroshi Aoyama qualified tenth and finished in tenth.
Marco Simoncelli rode to eleventh but was a massive 10 and half seconds from Aoyama.
Hector Barbera on his yellow Ducati took 12th and the last rider on the grid was veteran MotoGP rider Marco Melandri, who even brought home three points.
Crashing out besides Casey Stoner, were both Pramac Ducati rider Mika Kallio and Aleix Espargaro and Álvaro Bautista on the final corner of the last lap.
Qatar MotoGP Race Results:01- Valentino Rossi – Fiat Yamaha Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – 22 laps in 42′50.
09902- Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamaha Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.
02203- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 1.
86504- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 1.
87605- Ben Spies – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 3.
90306- Randy De Puniet – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 9.
32207- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 16.
50808- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 19.
86709- Loris Capirossi – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 20.
89310- Hiroshi Aoyama – Interwetten Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 21.
10011- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 31.
63812- Hector Barbera – Paginas Amarillas Aspar – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 32.
57313- Marco Melandri – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 40.
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