Australia's Casey Stoner won the opening round of the MotoGP World Championship in Qatar overnight.

Australia’s Casey Stoner has won the season-opening MotoGP World Championship race at the Losail Circuit in Qatar held overnight.

In his Repsol Honda race debut, Stoner finished 3.440 seconds ahead of second placed defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing).

It had been eight years since a Honda rider won the opening round of the MotoGP season, the last rider to do so was Valentino Rossi in 2003 at Suzuka.

Stoner has an impressive record at the Losail International Circuit after winning here in 2008 and 2009. The win marked the 31st win of his career here this evening and his 24th in MotoGP.

The riders observed a one minutes silence in honour of the victims of the Japan earthquake ahead of the MotoGP race.

Pedrosa took the lead from the start of the race and then it was Lorenzo who took up the mantle as race leader. What followed was fierce between the two Spaniards and Stoner, with the Repsol Hondas eventually pulling an advantage.

Stoner and Pedrosa swapped position for the lead on several occasions and at the midway point, the Stoner increased his pace and set off for the chequered flag.

“It definitely couldn’t be any better, and it’s a similar start to when we won the world championship,” Stoner beamed. “Everything with Honda so far has been amazing and we’ve made leaps and bounds over the pre-season, getting more comfortable on the bike and stronger and stronger.

“This was the same in the race and the bike was fantastic. This morning in warm-up we found the bike didn’t want to work too well on a full tank of fuel so in the race Dani was able to open a bit of a gap but we were in no hurry as we knew the bike works well on old tyres and we’d be competitive at the end of the race.

“It got better and better the more laps we did and easier to ride right until the last lap. Everything has gone so well and everyone is working well so I’m looking forward to those next races already.”

This left the two championship rivals from 2010 dueling it out for second place and it was the Yamaha rider who picked up the 20 points.

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) were involved in a close battle for fourth place throughout the race and it was the Repsol Honda who took the first position off the podium. Dovizioso finished 5.942 behind Stoner.

There was much anticipation surrounding the debut of Valentino Rossi with the Ducati Team. The Italian finished seventh after racing Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing), after swapping places with the American, the Yamaha got the advantage over the Ducati to take sixth place.

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was eighth, with Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) and Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) completing the top 10.

Newcomer Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) managed to take 11th place on the last lap ahead of Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar Team).

GP debutant Karel Abraham (Cardion ab Motoracing) was the final rider to pass the chequered flag and earned himself three points, with just 13 riders finishing the first race of the season.

It was not the MotoGP return that Toni Elías (LCR Honda) had been hoping for. After languishing in 14th place at the back, he suffered a strange crash towards the end of the race which cost him two points.

It was a nightmare start for the Pramac Racing team after Randy de Puniet had a nasty highside on lap on causing his race to end early. His teammate Loris Capirossi was hit by the Frenchman’s bike, crushing his hand and therefore had to retire from the race.

The series will now move to Jerez in Spain on 1-3 April for round two.

2011 MotoGP World Championship
Round One – Losail Circuit, Qatar

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