Rossi wins again

From motogp.com

A home victory and the retirement of rival Casey Stoner at Misano on Sunday left Valentino Rossi one step closer to a sixth MotoGP World Championship, and his fans in celebratory mood amidst the yellow grandstands.

The Fiat Yamaha rider was, for the third race in succession, starting from second on the grid for the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. He could do nothing to stop title rival Stoner from taking the holeshot early, however, as the reigning World Champion established a large gap even before the first time that the riders crossed the start/finish line.

Rossi was making up ground by the seventh lap, but the fans were denied a fascinating direct battle between the two when Stoner lost control of his Ducati Desmosedici GP8 and – as he did at Brno two weeks ago - saw his race come to an early conclusion.

From then on, Rossi completed the race in relatively untroubled fashion, bringing his Yamaha M1 home safely and taking his 68th premier class victory, in doing so equaling the record of MotoGP Legend Giacomo Agostini. Three consecutive race victories, a 75-point advantage in the standings and just five events remaining in 2008 mean that `The Doctor´ can now breathe a little easier after this latest triumph.

Teammate Jorge Lorenzo made his podium return at Misano with the runner-up spot, his first rostrum finish since the visit to Le Mans back in May. The MotoGP rookie was unable to catch up with his fellow Fiat Yamaha rider, but nonetheless had a comfortable advantage of his own over third place finisher Toni Elias.

Alice Team rider Elias followed his second place at Brno with another rostrum, the first time that he has taken consecutive podiums in the premier class. He held off another Spaniard in Repsol Honda´s Dani Pedrosa, whose teammate Nicky Hayden decided to miss both the warmup and race due to his persistent foot injury.

Pedrosa closed the gap between himself and second placed Stoner to just two points.

Chris Vermeulen rounded off the top five for Rizla Suzuki, ahead of James Toseland, Loris Capirossi, Andrea Dovizioso, Marco Melandri and Colin Edwards.

San Marino´s MotoGP representative Alex de Angelis lasted just over a lap of his home race, and his disappointment was shared by LCR Honda´s Randy de Puniet, who also hit the ground early on.

Race Results
1. V. ROSSI (Fiat Yamaha Team) 44:41.884
2. J. LORENZO (Fiat Yamaha Team) +3.163
3. T. ELIAS (Alice Team) +11.705
4. D. PEDROSA (Repsol Honda Team) +17.470
5. C. VERMEULEN (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP) +23.409
6. J. TOSELAND (Tech 3 Yamaha) +26.208
7. L. CAPIROSSI (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP) +26.824
8. A. DOVIZIOSO (JiR Team Scot MotoGP) +27.591
9. M. MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team) +33.169
10. C. EDWARDS (Tech 3 Yamaha) +36.529
11. S. GUINTOLI (Alice Team) +42.081
12. S. NAKANO (San Carlo Honda Gresini) +43.808
13. A. WEST (Kawasaki Racing Team) +54.874
14. J. HOPKINS (Kawasaki Racing Team) +55.154
Not classified
C. STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 21 Laps
A. DE ANGELIS (San Carlo Honda Gresini) 27 Laps
Not finished 1st lap
R. DE PUNIET (LCR Honda MotoGP)
Did Not Start
N. HAYDEN (Repsol Honda Team)

Point Standings
1. Valentino ROSSI 262
2. Casey STONER 187
3. Dani PEDROSA 185
4. Jorge LORENZO 140
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO 118
6. Chris VERMEULEN 110
7. Colin EDWARDS 108
8. Shinya NAKANO 87
9. Loris CAPIROSSI 86
10. James TOSELAND 85
11. Nicky HAYDEN 84
12. Toni ELIAS 82
13. Alex DE ANGELIS 49
14. Marco MELANDRI 48
15. Sylvain GUINTOLI 47
16. Randy DE PUNIET 40
17. John HOPKINS 39
18. Anthony WEST 36
19. Ben SPIES 10
20. Jamie HACKING 5
21. Tadayuki OKADA 2