But it was Locatelli who got the holeshot and led them through the first turns with Dovizioso right on his tail, Giansanti was third and Stoner fourth at this early stage of the race.  Late on lap one Stoner moved past Giansanti for third place.  Championship favourite Hector Barbera had some troubles prior to the race and had to start from pitlane.

Stoner set a new lap record on the fourth lap after recording a 1m40.899 to close right on to the back of the two leaders with 20 laps to run.  This three then ran around nose-to-tail lap after lap until around half race distance when Pablo Nieto started closing on the leading trio to make it a quartet.

On lap 16 of the 24 lap race Stoner moved up to second place after a nice move under Dovizioso and then latched on to the back of Locatelli. 

A couple of laps later Stoner made his move but the leading quartet were still nose-to-tail and all of them had a handy chance far victory.  Locatelli took the lead back on the next lap, then later on that same lap Dovizioso pushed Stoner back to third with a nice move underneath the young Australian.  This leading quartet had nine seconds over the battle for fifth which Di Meglio was leading with four laps remaining.

Locatelli and Dovizioso then managed to pull a couple of bike lengths out of Stoner as the two Italians stepped up the pace in the closing laps. 

With two laps to run Stoner dropped to fourth when Pablo Nieto pushed him off the podium.  This pair were set to have their own battle to the line for third while Locatelli and Dovizioso were going to fight for the win all the way to the line.

Dovizioso made a brilliant move on the final corner to take the win, fantastic race.  Casey Stoner just managed to get the better of Nieto on the run through the final corners to take the final podium position.  What a thriller!