A healthy group of seven riders quickly broke away from the pack in this race. Lorenzo, Bautista, Dovizioso, Simoncelli, Jenkner, Stoner and Locatelli the chief protagonists over the early laps with some close racing having everyone on their toes.  Bautista and Simoncelli even had a major clash of fairings on the main straight but both riders stayed up and carried on unfettered, could have been nasty...

At half race distance Jenkner dropped off from the pack while Pablo Nieto relegated him to 8th position and set out after the leading group of six.

The battle up front continued to be close with the pace very hot.  Locatelli crashed out with a few laps to go.  Nieto had come from nowhere to catch the group during the middle of the race before then working his way to the front of the group with a handful of laps to run.  Barbera also came from well back to catch the leading group.

With three laps to run Barbera took the lead from Nieto but the front group were still tightly packed with Casey Stoner lying fourth.  He then moved up to third with two laps remaining.

As they got the last lap board Stoner was pushed back to fifth while Nieto took the lead, Barbera back in front two corners later, Stoner up to fourth, Nieto back in the lead up the inside, Barbera up the inside at the next turn, then Dovizioso up to 2nd, Barbera then held the lead through a series of turns with Dovizioso right behind as they came on to the main straight and Barbera takes the win by 0.006 of a second. Nieto third, Stoner fourth.

Results