Catalunya's 1km main straight was perfect Ducati territory, but the top speed differential between Stoner's factory Desmosedici and its chief rivals wasn't as overwhelming as it has been. Rossi and Pedrosa had both been able to stay in Stoner's slipstream but - with the situation now reversed - Casey looked set to slingshot past Rossi on the run into turn one.
That proved the case, but Rossi looked over as his red attacker drew alongside and responded by leaving his braking to the latest possible moment. The Doctor was certainly much stronger on the brakes and was just able to defend his lead, but Stoner wasn't to be denied and dived inside again at the very next turn. That produced the exciting sight of Stoner, Rossi and Pedrosa almost three-wide through the long right-hander, before Casey ran Rossi wide onto the kerbs. Amazingly, the fight still wasn't over as Rossi again lunged for the lead - and again Stoner delivered a successful counter attack.
It took Rossi a lap to get back onto Stoner's rear wheel, with Pedrosa still shadowing the M1 rider, and this time he tried an audacious pass into the fast final turn. It was a success, but Stoner unleashed Ducati horsepower to regain the advantage along the straight.
Rossi's faith in the front of his M1 helped him outbrake Stoner into turn one with four laps to go, and he exploited all of his braking advantage to defend the position at the same place a lap later. However, Rossi wasn't able to shake the #27 and as the penultimate lap began, Stoner drilled his Desmosedici's throttle out of the final turn and made sure he was ahead into turn one.
Rossi crawled all over the Australian for the next two laps, rarely more than a tenth behind, but Casey again proved completely unshakeable in the face of such pressure and Rossi - also on the limit - simply had no answer.
