Well it was Rossi's day today. He stamped his authority on the Spanish circuit leading the race all the way from an early overtake on the pole sitter Pedrosa. He stuffed it up the inside of the little Spaniard and stayed ahead of him, gradually lengthening his lead lap by lap. Pedrosa stayed in second for the whole race, never really threatening Rossi and never being threatened himself.
Edwards on the second Yamaha tool a respectable third place. It was good to see him doing well, he seemed to struggle last year apart from at Assen.
The best battling of the race took place behind the number three position. Fourth was Toni Elias, then Casey Stoner who early in the race fell back several postions but fought his way back up the field to fifth. Behind him was Carlos Checa who also seemed to have a reversal of fortunes at the end of the race.
Behind him was Hayden in seventh, he seemed to be having a hard time at the end of the race (tyres?), he dropped from fourth back to seventh.
Behind Hayden came Melandri, Vermuelen, Nakano, Alex Barros and then Capirossi (what's going on with Capirex he's had two poor results now?).
Poor old Hopkins had a great race right up till he fought his way into fourth place by getting past Hayden. He then lowsided off. Trying just a tad too hard I think. Shame, he was looking great right up until then, he got back on and continued to circulate in last place.
Full Final results:
1. Valentino ROSSI
2. Dani PEDROSA
3. Colin EDWARDS
4. Toni ELIAS
5. Casey STONER
6. Carlos CHECA
7. Nicky HAYDEN
8. Marco MELANDRI
9. Chris VERMEULEN
10. Shinya NAKANO
11. Alex BARROS
12. Loris CAPIROSSI
13. Randy DE PUNIET
14. Makoto TAMADA
15. Sylvain GUINTOLI
16. Kenny ROBERTS JR
17. Kousuke AKIYOSHI
18. Olivier JACQUE
19. John HOPKINS