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ISTANBUL : Australian Ducati rider Casey Stoner won the Turkish Moto GP here on Sunday.
Stoner - who leads the standings by 10 points heading towards the China GP - winning his second GP of the season beat home Spaniard Tony Elias on a Honda while another Ducati rider Loris Capirossi of Italy was third.
It turned out to be a nightmare race for sparky Italian genius Valentino Rossi.
The winner of the last race the Spanish GP started on pole for a race he has never won but ended up a disconsolate 10th on his Yamaha, got off his bike at the end of the race and looked at the rear tyre before going in for a meeting with his team.
Rossi admitted that it had not been an enjoyable weekend for him or his Yamaha team.
"We are very disappointed today because we had high expectations for this race, but instead we had some unexpected problems with the tyre and it's been a disaster for us," said Rossi.
Rossi was also less than enamoured with the riding of Elias.
"I'm also quite unhappy with Elias today because I think he was quite dangerous - more than once he passed me on the inside and then altered his line. This is not a correct way to race," he said.
Stoner said he had entered a mental zone early on which allowed him to focus entirely on his own race.
"I got past Colin Edwards quickly on the first lap and then Valentino Rossi when he went too wide on a corner," said Stoner.
"Then once in front I just went into a mental blockout for the next two laps and that enabled me to stay focussed."
The writing was on the wall early on for Rossi when he dropped to fifth on the first lap after going off the racetrack, while there was a mass collision down the field which saw four of the riders - including the catalyst for the crash Olivier Jacques - come off their bikes and resulted in the premature exit of Spaniard Dani Pedrosa.
Rossi, though, fought tenaciously and was up into second behind Stoner after passing Capirossi with 14 laps remaining and Elias had smoothly moved up into third as he also passed Capirossi.
Elias' seemingly remorseless progress saw him pass Rossi to move into second but with 11 laps remaining was not making any inroads into Stoner's lead.
Stoner, second last year and winner of the 250cc race in 2005, just simply extended his lead and came well clear to give himself a perfect lift for the China race as he gained 19 points on Rossi.
- AFP /ls
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