Rossi is champion again

Valentino Rossi has won his seventh race of the year to seal the MotoGP championship for the second year running.

The world champion sat behind Sete Gibernau for early part of the race but at half distance he decided to make his move, leaving the Spaniard in his wake.

Gibernau couldn’t match Rossi’s hot pace and finished the race in a lonely second position.

Max Biaggi also had a solitary race, passing Carlos Checa in the opening laps but unable to catch the front runners.

Nicky Hayden finished well, upping his pace in the second half of the race to overtake Loris Capirossi and Carlos Checa to finish in fourth place.

1) Rossi. 2) Gibernau. 3) Biaggi. 4) Hayden. 5) Checa. 6) Capirossi. 7) Ukawa. 8) Nakano. 9) Bayliss. 10) Tamada. 11) Melandri 12) Haga. 13) Edwards. 14) Roberts. 15) Barros. 16) Pitt. 17) McWilliams. 18) Aoki. 19) McCoy. 20) Ryo. 21) Kiyonari.

DNFs: De Gea. Burns. Jacque.

125cc:

Daniel Pedrosa became the second youngest-ever 125cc world champion at Sepang, taking the title with a win at the Malaysian circuit.

The Spaniard claimed his fifth victory of the year after building on a first corner lead. He was able to break away from the pack and build a commanding lead over the pack of Jorge Lorenzo, Thomas Luthi, Mika Kallio and Masao Azuma. Stefano Perugini was the only serious title contender, and he was forced to retire with mechanical problems.

Kallio eventually took second place, giving the KTM team their first ever podium. Lorenzo claimed his place on the final step of the podium. Luthi was fourth and Azuma was fifth.

Casey Stoner fell victim to two mistakes during the race. The first saw him out-brake himself, and drop from third to sixth, while the second saw him highside out of the race with six laps to go.

1) Pedrosa. 2) Kallio. 3) Lorenzo. 4) Luthi. 5) Azuma. 6) De Angelis. 7) Giansanti. 8) Barbera. 9) Nieto. 10) Locatelli. 11) Simoncelli. 12) Bianco. 13) Dovizioso. 14) Talmacsi. 15) Bautista. 16) Vincent. 17) Lai. 18) Ui. 19) Ballerini. 20) Borsoi. 21) Harms. 22) Di Meglio. 23) Alzamora. 24) Toth. 25) Simon. 26) Danese

DNFs: Cecchinello. Stoner. Jenkner. Sabbatani. Perugini. Pellino.

250cc:

Toni Elias led a static 250cc race to the flag to continue his outside shot at the championship title. The Spaniard took his third win in four races as he stretched out a comfortable gap over team-mate Fonsi Nieto and championship leader Manuel Poggiali.

Poggiali took second by just 0.01s despite the best efforts of Nieto, with Roberto Rolfo taking fourth from a poorly Randy de Puniet.

Poggiali still leads the championship by 25 points from Elias and Rolfo, with 50 points still up for grabs at the remaining two rounds.

1) Elias. 2) Poggiali. 3) Nieto. 4) Rolfo. 5) de Puniet. 6) Battaini. 7) Matsudo. 8) Porto. 9) West. 10) Baldolini. 11) Heidolf. 12) Davies. 13) Marchand. 14) Olive. 15) Hules. 16) Gemmel. 17) Poensgen. 18) vd Lagemaat. 19) Huang.

DNFs: Faubel. Stigefelt. Debon. Pesek. Bataille. Guintoli. Nigon.

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