This was the MotoGP race that Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) wanted to win to sign off
his season in style - and take the coveted runner-up spot in the World Championship. He was
a cut above the rest today with Casey Stoner (Ducati) was second and John Hopkins (Suzuki) third.

Stoner rocketed into the lead form the lights and had established a three-quarter second lead by
the end of the first tour of this 4.005km circuit. The Aussie obliterated the lap record on lap two and it looked as if the new World Champion might run away with this race. But Dani knew otherwise.

On lap three Pedrosa was holding Stoner in check and this lead pair had a 2.3 second advantage over first Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) and then Hopkins when he stole past the former World Champion on lap four. Conditons were perfect for racing under sunny skies with a temperature of 19 degrees and the track at 25.

Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda RC212V) began attacking Hayden for fourth place and the Honda duo swapped places twice on lap four, the lap when Dani decided to run the race at his own
increasingly rapid pace. Pedrosa set a fastest lap of 1m 32.748s as he closed on Stoner.

Dani took him on lap six and two laps later the 21-year-old Spanish star had a 0.6 second
advantage, another two laps later it was 1.1 seconds and Stoner had no reply. Nor did the rest
of the field. And Dani's rival for second overall in the World Championship, Valentino Rossi
(Yamaha), was struggling at the back of the field nursing a hand injury sustained in qualifying yesterday.

Dani, starting from his fourth consecutive pole of the season finally put his late season
dominance to full effect and rode lap after lap at blistering pace - annihilating the opposition.
He wanted second overall, but perhaps more than that, Dani wanted a Grand Prix win again.

Rossi slowed on lap 18 with machine trouble and then pitted a lap later, his race run. Dani was
now riding for both the win and the runner-up slot and he was never going to be stopped. His
margin at the finish was a massive 5.5 seconds over Stoner.

Behind them Hopkins had consolidated third while Hayden was slipping down the order having lost fourth place to Melandri on lap 19, fifth spot to Loris Capirossi (Ducati) on lap 26 and then
succumbing to Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) who took sixth from him on the penultimate lap.

Dani, who is now the only rider ever to have won here in all three classes from pole while setting
fastest race laps too, said: "I'm very happy with this result. I really wanted to win this race
very much and so actually achieving it feels fantastic. In the early laps I was struggling a
little with grip from the front tyre but then in the second half of the race it was very good. The
pace today was really fast and Casey was chasing hard so there was no moment to relax or back off. Towards the end of the race I was sliding in some of the left-handers but I was still able to push hard. Thanks to the team because they worked very hard for me this weekend and all year - and the bike was perfect today."

Melandri was fourth. He said: "I knew that it a would be a tough race, but today was much harder than in practice. I made a good start to gain five places but I lacked feeling in the front-end and the bike was moving around a lot. I fought with Hayden for fourth and was looking for Hopkins, but it wasn't possible on this occasion. It's disappointing because I wanted a podium and I've missed out on fourth place in the World Championship by two points to John. I wanted a better result, but thanks to Fausto and the team for all their hard work."

Hayden, eighth at the flag, after Alex Barros (Ducati) took seventh off him on the last lap, said: "Well, we knew all weekend that we were on the back foot and the race proved it. We made a
lot of changes for warm-up this morning and the package felt a bit better, but still we didn't
have the pace we needed for the race. I got a pretty good start but there were a few places on
the lap where I was too weak and this made it quite a difficult race for me. It's been a tough
year so now we'll go back to work. Thanks to the team for all their hard work this year. We're
going to keep working hard so we can do a lot better next year."

Toni Elias (Gresini Honda RC212V) finished tenth and said: "I made a good start, but I struggled a lot in the first ten laps with a full tank, and was not getting enough grip. Once my pace
improved I went after Vermeulen, de Puniet and Capirossi but couldn't catch them. It's a shame
because I wanted to end the season with a better result. I want to thank the team and Fausto for the two last years. They have been like a family to me and they helped me get my first MotoGP win."

Carlos Checa (LCR Honda RC212V), 12th in his final MotoGP race, despite riding with a severe
stomach complaint said: "I'm a little emotional because I still have a great feeling for this fantastic sport. My aim was just to finish the race as way of saying goodbye to my fans and
friends and seven laps from the finish I started to have a lot pain in my stomach. Grand Prix
racing has been a great part of my life but now I start a new adventure in Superbikes."

Shinya Nakano (Konica Minolta Honda RC212V) was 14th and said: "Another very difficult race and one which has basically summed up the whole season. My start was so-so, but I found that I could overtake some riders going into turn two. At the beginning my pace wasn't so bad, but from the middle of the race I found that I couldn't improve my lap times. I've crashed a few times
this season because of this, but I'm pleased to be ending the year without any injuries. This is
an excellent team but unfortunately the results haven't been there for us this year."

Kurtis Roberts (Roberts KR212V) retired on ten. He said: "The thing just never worked right. We
did 1m 34s lap times pretty easily in practice, and a 1m 33s lap to qualify. I was riding just
the same in the race and we couldn't even see 1m 34s. My last lap was a 1m 36s. The engine started missing really bad off the bottom, and got progressively worse from the first lap on. I
couldn't do anything to keep up with them. It got slower and slower."

Race Classification MotoGP : (30 laps = 120.15 km)
Pos/ Rider / Nat / Team / Motorcycle / Time/ KM/H / Gap
1 / Dani PEDROSA / SPA / Repsol Honda Team / Honda / 46'43.533 / 154.283 /
2 / Casey STONER / AUS / Ducati Marlboro Team / Ducati / 46'48.980 / 153.984 / 5.447
3 / John HOPKINS / USA / Rizla Suzuki MotoGP / Suzuki / 47'03.937 / 153.169 / 20.404
4 / Marco Melandri / ITA / Honda Gresini / Honda / 47'08.360 / 152.929 / 24.827
5 / Loris Capirossi / ITA / Ducati Marlboro Team / Ducati / 47'09.337 / 152.876 / 25.804
6 / Chris VERMEULEN / AUS / Rizla Suzuki MotoGP / Suzuki / 47'09.395 / 152.873 / 25.862
7 / Alex Barros / BRA / Pramac d'Antin / Ducati / 47'13.003 / 152.678 / 29.470
8 / Nicky Hayden / USA / Repsol Honda Team / Honda / 47'13.866 / 152.632 / 30.333
9 / Randy DE PUNIET / FRA / Kawasaki Racing Team / Kawasaki / 47'14.428 / 152.602 / 30.895
10 / Toni ELIAS / SPA / Honda Gresini / Honda / 47'14.563 / 152.594 / 31.030
11 / Sylvain GUINTOLI / FRA / Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 / Yamaha / 47'22.296 / 152.179 / 38.763
12 / Carlos CHECA / SPA / Honda LCR / Honda / 47'26.039 / 151.979 / 42.506
13 / Colin Edwards / USA / Fiat Yamaha Team / Yamaha / 47'30.105 / 151.762 / 46.572
14 / Shinya NAKANO / JPN / Konica Minolta Honda / Honda / 47'33.753 / 151.568 / 50.220
15 / Makoto Tamada / JPN / Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 / Yamaha / 47'40.412 / 151.215 / 56.879

Pole Position: Dani PEDROSA 1'31.517 157.544 Km/h
Fastest Lap (New record): Dani PEDROSA 1'32.748 155.453 Km/h Lap 5
Circuit Record Lap: Loris Capirossi 1'32.924 155.159 Km/h 2006
Circuit Best Lap: Valentino Rossi 1'31.002 158.436 Km/h 2006

Final World Championship Positions:
1 STONER 367, 2 PEDROSA 242, 3 ROSSI 241, 4 HOPKINS 189, 5 MELANDRI 187,
6 VERMEULEN 179, 7 CAPIROSSI 166, 8 HAYDEN 127, 9 EDWARDS 124,
10 BARROS 115, 11 DE PUNIET 108, 12 ELIAS 104, 13 HOFMANN 65, 14 CHECA 65,
15 WEST 59.

Final Constructors standings
1 Ducati 394, 2 Honda 313, 3 Yamaha 283, 4 Suzuki 241, 5 Kawasaki 144,
6 KR212V 14.