In the second flag-to-flag race in as many rounds, Casey Stoner ended Valentino Rossi’s Mugello winning streak with a polished performance to give Ducati their first ever victory at the circuit.

Much of the Gran Premio d’Italia Alice race came down to tactics again in front of the 80,000-strong Italian crowd, the riders once more starting on a wet surface and completing the 23 lap contest on slick tyres, with Stoner this time judging things to perfection.

The Australian retook the championship lead as he crossed the line a second in front of former leader Jorge Lorenzo, who also rode well after the scare of crashing on the sighting lap.

Lorenzo’s Fiat Yamaha colleague Valentino Rossi completed the podium in third place as his seven-year winning run at his beloved home track came to an end, the Italian hero crossing the line two seconds behind Stoner and less than one tenth in front of Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso.

Dovizioso missed out on the rostrum on the last lap once again, having held the race lead early on when on wet tyres. Likewise, his compatriot Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) was leading at one stage – later in the race – but he fell away in the final laps to finish fifth.

James Toseland made a brave decision to come in first and change bikes when running towards the back of the field and he just missed out on equaling his best MotoGP result of sixth as he was outdone by team-mate Colin Edwards on the last lap, having also dueled with LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet -who was eventually eighth.

Niccolò Canepa (Pramac Racing) will be delighted to have achieved his best result to date as the second highest Ducati rider in ninth at his home race, with Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) completing the top ten behind the young Italian.

Dani Pedrosa hit the deck and crashed out on lap 14 having already damaged his hip earlier in the weekend, the Spaniard stretchered away from trackside. He will face an anxious wait to see if he is fit for his own home race at Barcelona in two weeks time. Honda satellite rider Yuki Takahashi also crashed out with 13 laps to go.

Results: Italian MotoGP (Gran Premio d’Italia Alice) Mugello May 31, 2009

1 25 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 45'41.894 158.389

2 20 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 45'42.895 158.331 1.001

3 16 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 45'43.970 158.269 2.076

4 13 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 45'44.023 158.266 2.129

5 11 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 45'45.168 158.200 3.274

6 10 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 46'06.345 156.989 24.451

7 9 52 James TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 46'07.515 156.922 25.621

8 8 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 46'07.940 156.898 26.046

9 7 88 Niccolo CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing DUCATI 46'13.709 156.572 31.815

10 6 7 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 46'16.708 156.403 34.814

11 5 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team KAWASAKI 46'16.984 156.387 35.090

12 4 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 46'21.016 156.160 39.122

13 3 36 Mika KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing DUCATI 46'34.356 155.415 52.462

14 2 24 Toni ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 46'34.372 155.414 52.478

15 1 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 46'03.967 150.292 1 lap

Not Classified

3 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 25'15.529 149.508 11 laps

72 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN Scot Racing Team MotoGP HONDA 21'18.170 147.726 13 laps

World Championship Standings

1 STONER Casey AUS 90 25 13 16 11 25

2 LORENZO Jorge SPA 86 16 25 - 25 20

3 ROSSI Valentino ITA 81 20 20 25 - 16

4 PEDROSA Dani SPA 57 5 16 20 16 -

5 DOVIZIOSO Andrea ITA 56 11 11 8 13 13

6 MELANDRI Marco ITA 48 2 10 11 20 5

7 EDWARDS Colin USA 45 13 4 9 9 10

8 CAPIROSSI Loris ITA 38 - 9 10 8 11

9 VERMEULEN Chris AUS 37 9 6 6 10 6

10 DE PUNIET Randy FRA 34 6 5 13 2 8

11 TOSELAND James GBR 26 - 7 3 7 9

12 ELIAS Toni SPA 23 7 1 7 6 2

13 DE ANGELIS Alex RSM 21 10 3 2 5 1

14 KALLIO Mika FIN 19 8 8 - - 3

15 HAYDEN Nicky USA 13 4 - 1 4 4

16 CANEPA Niccolo ITA 10 - 2 - 1 7

17 GIBERNAU Sete SPA 8 3 - 5 - -

18 TAKAHASHI Yuki JPN 8 1 - 4 3 -

Constructor Points

Team Points

QAT JPN SPA FRA ITA CAT NED USA GER GBR CZE INP RSM POR AUS MAL VAL

1 YAMAHA 115 20 25 25 25 20

2 DUCATI 90 25 13 16 11 25

3 HONDA 76 11 16 20 16 13

4 SUZUKI 49 9 9 10 10 11

5 KAWASAKI 48 2 10 11 20 5

QAT JPN SPA FRA ITA CAT NED USA GER GBR CZE INP RSM POR AUS MAL VAL

1 FIAT YAMAHA TEAM 167 36 45 25 25 36

2 REPSOL HONDA TEAM 113 16 27 28 29 13

3 DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM 103 29 13 17 15 29

4 RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP 75 9 15 16 18 17

5 MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 71 13 11 12 16 19

6 HAYATE RACING TEAM 48 2 10 11 20 5

7 SAN CARLO HONDA GRESI 44 17 4 9 11 3

8 LCR HONDA MOTOGP 34 6 5 13 2 8

9 PRAMAC RACING 29 8 10 - 1 10

10 GRUPO FRANCISCO HERN 8 3 - 5 - -

11 SCOT RACING TEAM MOT 8 1 - 4 3 -

© DORNA, 2009