Stoner started on pole, with Rossi right next to him. It was pretty clear when they left the grid that it was going to be another one of those races where Stoner just disappeared into the sunset after a few laps. Which is basically what did happen. Rossi also broke away from the pack, but Stoner was turning a comfortable lead, lap after lap. Until, about half way through the race, when Stoner low-sided coming through a corner, paving the way for Rossi’s spot on the top of the podium. Speaking of the podium, Rossi was sharing it with some unlikely suspects. Toni Elias came in second riding the Alice Ducati. What? Caprirossi taking third wouldn’t be too much of a surprise, being that he is such a veteran, but lets face it, the Suzuki GP bikes are total crap. Just ask Hopkins, who struggled with their factory bikes for the last three seasons. Speaking of Hopkins, he had a great start, coming back from a major knee surgery. He was in third position for a good portion of the race, but ultimately ended up not even finishing in the top 10. One has to imagine that dragging your freshly repaired knee on the ground at 150 mph, will wear you down after an hour or so. He did make it clear that he should be able to produce some results, once full health is regained. Pedrosa raced like crap and blamed it on Michellin. If empirical data is any indication, there is most likely some truth to his complaint. The Michellin shod bikes have failed to perform, all season long.
After this race, Rossi has a somewhat comfortable lead, in the world championship points. It is going to be a very difficult task for Stoner to make up the ground that he lost, in the points race, after this last crash. It just makes the end of the season, all the more exiting.