Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi was handed an easy win as Casey Stoner crashed his Marlboro Ducati on lap six of today's Brno MotoGP round.

The Aussie had leapt into a cammanding 1.2s lead by the end of the first lap but Rossi managed to keep gap for constant four laps and then started to slowly cut in Stoner's advantage.

On lap six, The Doctor was within a second which was displayed on Stoner's pitboard. The next turn saw Stoner lost the front, quickly followed by the rear and careered into the gravel trap. It is thought that Stoner drove his footpeg into the tarmac which lifted the front tyre off the ground. He re-mounted but then retired half a lap later.

This left Rossi with a 12-second lead over Chris Vermeulen, who was in a scrap with Rizla Suzuki team-mate Loris Capirossi and the Kawasakis of John Hopkins and Anthony West.

Rossi crossed the line 17 seconds ahead of Elias, with Capirossi taking the last podium spot. This gives The Doctor a 50-point advantage over Stoner.

The race's big surprise was the emergence of Toni Elias on the Alice Ducati. He hauled himself from 13th on the grid to take second place with ten laps to go, passing Capirossi and the Italian wasn't able to stay with Elias's pace

Shinya Nakano, riding the 2009-spec customer RC212V, soon found himself in the scrap fourth with a resurgent Anthony West as Hopkins and Vermeulen dropped of the pace.

Nakano passed West with five laps to go and pulled away. This made him the leading Honda with Alex De Angelis and Andrea Dovizioso finishing in eighth and ninth respectively.

Once again, it was a disaster for Michelin. Three world champions, Jorge Lorenzo, James Toseland and Colin Edwards, were 10th, 13th and 14th respectively with the Texas Tornado finishing the race some one and a half minutes behind Rossi.

Injured Dani Pedrosa rounded out the points in 15th, while Randy De Puniet, who crashed and re-mounted, was last.

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