Three wins out of four for Stoner

Casey Stoner has continued his superb start to the season by taking his third win of the season at the Shanghai GP at China.

Stoner stretches his lead in the title race to 15 points over Valentino Rossi who finished in second position on the day.

The race was virtually a carbon copy of the opening round at Qatar with Rossi closing on Stoner through the twisty sections but when it came to opening the throttle the Ducati 800’s ate the competition for dinner.

From the green light John Hopkins led the race before Rossi overtook him just before the long back straight.

First lap drama saw Elias collide with Hayden and Barros, ending his race and leaving the defending MotoGP World Champion and the D’Antin Ducati rider lagging at the back.

Nakano and Tamada also crashed out on lap five as they both turned into the tight hairpin at the end of the main straight.

Stoner and Rossi fought for nearly 15 laps with Rossi taking the lead on numerous occasions but it was only short lived as the Ducati came past every lap on the back straight.

After out-braking himself into the hairpin earlier in the race, Rossi killed his chances of taking the win by running off the track at the end of the mammoth straight with just seven laps to go, dropping behind Hopkins.

Rossi did pass the American Rizla Suzuki rider two laps later, but the 2.5 seconds he lost on Stoner when he went off the circuit was too big a gap to close.

Stoner wheelied over the line in celebration, followed by Rossi and a joyous John Hopkins who secured his first ever MotoGP podium.

Pedrosa couldn’t repeat last year’s victory at the Chinese GP, taking fourth in front of Marco Melandri, Loris Capirossi, Chris Vermeulen and the lone Kawasaki of Randy De Puniet.

RESULT

1. Casey Stoner
2. Valentino Rossi
3. John Hopkins
4. Dani Pedrosa
5. Marco Melandri
6. Loris Capirossi
7. Chris Vermeulen
8. Randy De Puniet
9. Alex Hoffman
10. Carlos Checa
11. Colin Edwards
12. Nicky Hayden
13. Sylvain Guintoli
14. Alex Barros
15. Kenny Roberts