KEY POINTS:
MISANO - Casey Stoner's charge towards the MotoGP title continued today when the Australian dominated the San Marino grand prix from start to finish.
The Ducati rider's eighth victory of the season, his third consecutive win, gave him an 85-point lead over Italy's Valentino Rossi, who retired after his Yamaha's new engine suffered mechanical failure on the fifth lap.
The result makes it possible for Stoner to clinch the championship at the Portuguese grand prix at Estoril on September 6 with four races to spare but the 21-year-old said he would not let that thought influence his approach.
"Already the title was close before this race and I still want to go out and win races because this is why we race," he said.
"The championship is a bonus at the end but we have many races until then so I want to try to win as many as possible.
"Today again was a great day, I didn't expect to be so competitive as we struggled a little bit at the weekend. The team worked very hard in the night time and we were able to come out with a good setting for the race."
Australia's Chris Vermeulen came second on a Suzuki to consolidate fourth place in the standings on 144 points.
Fellow Suzuki rider John Hopkins, of the United States, who shared fourth place in the table with Vermeulen before the race, finished third.
Italy's Marco Melandri came back from a neck injury that kept him out of the Czech grand prix and a heavy crash in practice on Saturday to finish fourth after starting 12th on the grid.
World champion Nicky Hayden, who started on the front row, came 13th after being involved in a crash on the first corner that knocked out his Honda team mate Dani Pedrosa.
Pedrosa remains third in the standings with 168 points.
SAN MARINO MOTOGP RESULTS/STANDINGS
Casey Stoner (Australia) Ducati 44min 34.720sec 1, Chris Vermeulen (Australia) Suzuki 44:39.571 2, John Hopkins (US) Suzuki 44:50.722 3, Marco Melandri (Italy) Honda 44:57.457 4, Loris Capirossi (Italy) Ducati 44:59.507 5, Carlos Checa (Spain) Honda 45:09.706 6, Toni Elias (Spain) Honda 45:15.616 7, Anthony West (Australia) Kawasaki 45:16.494 8, Colin Edwards (US) Yamaha 45:21.866 9, Shinya Nakano (Japan) Honda 45:23.528 10.
Championship standings: Casey Stoner (Australia) Ducati 271 points 1, Valentino Rossi (Italy) Yamaha 186 2, Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda 168 3, Chris Vermeulen (Australia) Suzuki 144 4, John Hopkins (US) Suzuki 140 5, Marco Melandri (Italy) Honda 126 6, Colin Edwards (US) Yamaha 100 7, Loris Capirossi (Italy) Ducati 98 8, Nicky Hayden (US) Honda 92 9, Alex Barros (Brazil) Ducati 83 10.
- REUTERS
