Casey Stoner took the checkers, with Valentino Rossi finishing in second followed by Dani Pedrosa.
Casey Stoner made it two in a row at Donington, with the reigning GP champion taking the checkers in the 2008 British Grand Prix. The pole position starter, Stoner claimed victory in dominating flag-to-flag style with the Aussie joined on the rostrum by Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa.
The first corner of the race saw Stoner already at the advantage, while the British fans were crushed by seeing their man James Toseland highside into the gravel. Turning the first lap it was Stoner in the lead, followed by Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso and the Repsol Honda duo of Nicky Hayden and Pedrosa.
In the early laps Rossi did his best to keep Stoner within his sites, while Pedrosa jumped up from his poor third-row starting position to run onto the podium pace. Standing between Pedrosa and third was satellite Honda rider Dovizioso, who yielded the position on Lap 8 in an exciting maneuver.
As Stoner widened his lead by a couple tenths on every lap, position battles developed between Pedrosa and Rossi over second, with Dovizioso and Hayden fighting for fourth - the latter pair swapping spots on Lap 10 through the esses.
The battle for second really began to heat up at the halfway mark, where Pedrosa managed to draft past the Italian on the front straight. The Doctor would have none of it, however, as the five-time MotoGP champion managed to regain the position within the lap.
Meanwhile back in fourth, The Texas Tornado, Colin Edwards, twisted his way forward by Dovizioso and his fellow American Hayden. Also in the mix in the third group was MCUSA columnist Chris Vermeulen, who pushed by Hayden for seventh.
Stoner gets back to his 2007 form in Britain.
In the closing laps the positions spaced out as things settled down. The exception in the top 10 was Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, the injured rookie emerging from an obscure ninth to snatch ahead of Hayden and Vermeulen for valuable points.
Unchallenged throughout, Stoner crossed the line five second ahead of Rossi, who was two seconds ahead of Pedrosa. Edwards scored a strong fourth with Dovizioso in fifth. Lorenzo was sixth, Hayden seventh, Vermeulen eighth, with Shinya Nakano ninth and Anthony West getting his best result of the year in tenth.
Stoner had to take his victory lap through a literally crowed field, as the British spectators flooded onto the Donington circuit. Although suffering through a miserable outing, getting lapped by the field, Toseland had remounted his Yamaha and finished the race. In fact, King James made a turn on the track for his home crowd with the Union Jack in hand.
John Hopkins was the only rider not to finish the race, with the American pulling off midrace with technical problems - another frustrating result for Hopper aboard the Kawasaki.
As for Ben Spies, the young American surprised the field by qualifying in the top 10. After a so-so first half of the race Spies felt much better in the second half turning his fastest time of the day on the penultimate lap, scoring the first points of his MotoGP career with a 14th-place finish.
Rizla's Ben Spies got his first taste of MotoGP action on the British circuit. Look for more from Spies who will be the wild card for Rizla at both American MotoGP rounds.
"It was a tough race as I was still trying to learn the tires, the bike and the track in the first few laps," said the young Texan. "The first half of the race felt like garbage to me, but the second half was really good! I was running times towards the end that would have put us in the top-10 so I'm quite pleased with that. I was catching the guys in front and reeling them in lap-by-lap, but I just didn't have enough laps to get up and past them. I was definitely getting more comfortable on the bike and even though the result wasn't what I wanted the times at the end were really fast and I'm happy with that!"
Now the MotoGP paddock crosses the channel to race at Assen in six days time, with Spies maybe getting the nod once again, depending on the condition of Loris Capirossi.
MotoGP Donington Results:
1 Stoner Ducati Marlboro Team 44'44.982
2 Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team + 5.789
3 Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team + 8.347
4 Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha + 12.678
5 Dovizioso JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 14.801
6 Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team + 15.690
7 Hayden Repsol Honda Team + 18.196
8 Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 21.666
9 Nakano San Carlo Honda Gresini + 29.354
10 West Kawasaki Racing Team + 41.030
11 Elias Alice Team + 44.426
12 De Puniet LCR Honda MotoGP + 46.199
13 Guintoli Alice Team + 48.731
14 Spies Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 49.591
15 De Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1'22.186
16 Melandri Ducati Marlboro Team + 1'30.021
17 Toseland Tech 3 Yamaha 1 Lap
DNF Hopkins USA Kawasaki Racing Team 14 Lap
