Nobody had managed to win a
MotoGP event from the front of the grid since the 2006 Japanese GP last September, but Stoner blew that statistic out of the window as he simply rode away from the rest of the field in California to snare his sixth victory of the season.
Having been the man to beat throughout free practice and qualifying, the Ducati rider lost out when the lights went green as
Dani Pedrosa made the best start from second on the grid to jump into the lead, but it wasn't to last as the 21-year-old points leader quickly made a move on his Spanish rival to retake a lead he wasn't to lose for the remainder of the race.
Indeed, while one Repsol Honda man made a good start, the second was in trouble as defending champion
Nicky Hayden saw his title defence lurch from one disaster to another at turn two, when he ran wide alongside fellow American
John Hopkins but then made contact with the Rizla Suzuki man as both attempted to get back on line. While Hopkins would come off worst and end up on the tarmac, it would be Hayden who would ultimately pay the higher price as the race progressed…
At the end of the opening lap, Stoner led from Pedrosa, while
Chris Vermeulen on the second Suzuki had maintained his third place from Yamaha team-mates
Valentino Rossi and
Colin Edwards in fourth and fifth. Behind them, Italian
Marco Melandri had jumped up to sixth from tenth on the grid – despite being at far from 100 per cent following his session stopping fall during qualifying.
