British GP: Casey Stoner wins at Donington

Championship leader Casey Stoner has put in a masterful performance at Donington Park to claim victory at the British GP, his fifth win of the season.

The Australian Marlboro Ducati rider took advantage of a rapidly drying track to take the win ahead of pole sitter Colin Edwards and fellow Aussie Chris Vermeulen.

When the lights went green Colin Edwards got the jump on the pack ahead of the two Repsol Honda riders and team-mate Valentino Rossi.

The opening laps were filled with overtaking manoeuvres on a still very wet circuit.

On lap three John Hopkins dived underneath both Rossi and Hayden at the Melbourne Loop after defending champion Hayden had only seconds before passed Rossi on the exit of Foggy Esses.

Stoner started to make inroads to the front after an uncharacteristic bad start and was soon setting chase after Edwards with Vermeulen.

Rossi tried to follow suit but nearly ran off under Strakeys Bridge when he lunged up the inside of Hopkins.

On lap five Nicky Hayden, who was having his best ride of the season so far, crashed out of fourth place and returned to the pits before heading out on track again.

Dani Pedrosa had been in second but a few tough moves from Stoner and the Suzuki pairing pushed him back and he dropped out of contention.

Rossi then went on a charge, setting the fastest lap and taking both the Suzuki riders.

Anthony West had been moving forwards with Rossi but ran wide at Coppice, but instead of slowing down in the gravel the debutant Aussie opened the throttle speedway-style to try to limit the amount of time he lost, only to fall off in the process.

A third of the way into the 30 lap race Rossi ran wide at Coppice but just managed to keep his Fiat Yamaha out of the gravel trap, rejoining behind Hopkins and retaking the American at the same corner he nearly crashed at the next time round.

Half way through and as the track started to dry Casey Stoner began to reel in Colin Edwards.

Lower down the filed Toni Elias was having an excursion across the grass at Craner Curves while up front Colin Edwards missed his apex at Foggys and Melbourne Loop leaving the door open for Stoner to take the lead.

There was no way back from there with Stoner setting a blistering pace at the front as a completely dry line graced the Leicestershire circuit.

Further down Anthony West carved his way back through the field lapping at the same pace as the front runners and Loris Capirossi began to make drastic movements towards the top places.

He set a fastest lap of 1.41.794 on lap 21 only to cras ha couple of laps later at speed going into Redgate corner.

Four laps from the end Rossi fell back into the clutches of Vermeulen who slipped past him going into Fogarty Esses and instantly gapped the seven times world champion.

Two laps from the end and Toni Elias popped up with the quickest lap of the race, a 1.41.428.

Casey Stoner now extends his lead in the championship over Rossi by 26 points.

RESULTS

1. Stoner  Ducati
2. Edwards  Yamaha
3. Vermeulen  Suzuki
4. Rossi  Yamaha
5. Hopkins  Suzuki
6. De Puniet  Kawasaki
7. Barros  Ducati
8. Pedrosa  Honda
9. Hoffman  Ducati
10. Melandri  Honda
11. West  Kawasaki
12. Elias  Honda
13. Kurtis Roberts KR212V
14. Nakano  Honda
15. Tamada  Yamaha
16. Guintoli  Yamaha
17. Hayden  Honda