Stoner Storms to First Win of 2010 at Aragon

Starting from pole Stoner held his position going into the first turn, but usual rapid starter Pedrosa dropped to fifth as the riders bunched up in the tight opening curve. The Repsol Honda rider fought back in the early stages of the race however to climb to second behind Stoner, and the gap between the two fluctuated throughout.

The pair were consistently fast for the duration of the race but Stoner managed to pull away towards the end as he achieved what was eventually a comfortable 25 points, with Pedrosa maintaining his good form in second.

There were battles all the way through the field and none more entertaining than that between Hayden and Lorenzo for the final podium spot. A fearless overtake on Lorenzo by Hayden on the final lap delivered the American the honours, and ended the Fiat Yamaha rider's record of having placed on the rostrum at every race so far this season.

Ben Spies notched another impressive result with fifth place as he resisted the challenge of Andrea Dovizioso, who crashed out on the final lap whilst pushing hard in better the American

Valentino Rossi rounded off a tough weekend in sixth place, whilst rookies Marco Simoncelli and Alvaro Bautista completed the top eight with solid displays. Marco Melandri and Aleix Espargaro took top-ten finishes, whilst Randy de Puniet escaped injury when he crashed out on lap 16.

Lorenzo's advantage at the top of the Championship was cut to 56 points and he now stands on 284 points, with Pedrosa on 228 in second. Stoner's victory lifts him to third on 155, with Rossi staying fourth and Dovizioso dropping to fifth.

The leading quartet managed to avoid a crash at turn one, which was started by Fonsi Nieto, who also collected Alex Baldolini, Mattia Pasini, Ricky Cardus and Yonny Hernandez on his way to the gravel trap. All the riders involved were uninjured.

Just as he'd done to take his first win of the season in Mugello, Iannone got away at the front and immediately set about building an insurmountable gap back to his pursuers.

Alex de Angelis was running towards the front when he suffered the disappointment of crashing out having started from the front row, and it was left to Simon, Simone Corsi and Talmacsi to begin the battle for the final two podium spots.

Jules Cluzel and Scott Redding were part of a chasing pack, which Dominique Aegerter later joined, whilst championship leader Elias overcame a difficult grid position of 12th to rise to fifth by the midway point of the race.

All the while at the front Iannone was riding a comfortable race with a solid lead, which stood at as much as eight seconds towards the closing stages. The Italian eventually repeated his wins from pole that came at Mugello and Assen, with Simon holding off Talmacsi's challenge. It was the Mapfre Aspar rider's third consecutive second place finish, with Talmacsi taking a well-deserved first podium of the season.

Elias completed an impressive recovery from the third row to end fourth, coming close to catching the final podium spot, with Corsi, Cluzel, Aegerter, Redding and Stefan Bradl following him across the line. Another impressive ride in 10th came from Thomas Luthi who overcame a difficult qualification position of 20th to again score points.

There was bitter disappointment for British wild card Kev Coghlan however who had enjoyed a good weekend, qualifying in 13th. The Scottish rider suffered mechanical issues that meant he started from Pit Lane and he was later forced to retire from the race.

Elias remains at the top of the standings and is now on 224 points, 76 ahead of Simon who retains second place. Iannone moves into third and is now four points off Simon, with Luthi fourth and Corsi fifth.

There was a huge development not just in the race but also the championship at the very start when Randy Krummenacher crashed at turn one on the opening lap and took Marc Marquez down with him. The Swiss rider was able to remount his bike but Marquez, the championship leader going into the race, was not and suffered his first DNF since the second round at Jerez. Krummenacher was later black flagged for the incident.

That left the trio of Espargaro, Terol and Bradley Smith to contend for the podium positions as they pulled away from the remainder of the field, and the two Spaniards slowly began to open up a gap on the Briton.

Espargaro and Terol engaged in an intriguing scrap that saw the pair swap the lead on a number of occasions throughout, as they attempted to outwit one another. At one stage Terol appeared to be pulling away but his rival responded and kept a close check on him going into the final lap.

It was then that Espargaro made a daring bid for victory, going round the outside of Terol and assuming the lead which he held to cross the finish line just 0.050s ahead of the Bancaja Aspar rider, whose team-mate Bradley Smith rode to a lonely third place at 9.410s further back for his third podium of the campaign - his first since Catalunya.

Efren Vazquez came in fourth at just over 6.5s back, with Sandro Cortese and Tomoyoshi Koyama completing the top six. Esteve Rabat edged Jonas Folger for seventh place by just over a tenth of a second, with Danny Webb and Luis Salom scoring top-ten finishes.

The repercussions of the race result for the championship were that Terol now leads on 208 points, with Espargaro moving into second on 202 whilst Marquez drops to third and remains on 197.

Audio
Stoner comments on Aragón win
MotoGP.com
Results