Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner has taken victory in a damp race in Italy, finishing just over a second in front of Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo who crashed his Fiat Yamaha on the sighting lap.

It was declared a wet race and the field was out on wet tyres with soft  engine maps. Lorenzo, who would have been on his spare bike, dropped like a stone from the front row as he wheelspan off the line and he found himself in sixth place.

Repsol Honda's Andrea Dovizioso came out of the first corner scrap leading but was passed by rain expert Chris Vermeulen as Casey Stoner went past Dani Pedrosa for third.

Valentino Rossi was stuck in fifth place on lap two but managed to get past Pedrosa as the Hayate bike of Marco Melandri got past Loris Capirossi as the track began to dry.

On lap four, Dovi went past Vermuelen for second and then put a move on Stoner for the lead but ran wide and allowed the Ducati back past as Rossi began to close the gap.

With 20 laps to go, Dovi went past Stoner again but lost the lead as the Desmosedici's power carried him back past the Italian on the start/finish straight. Monster Yamaha's James Toseland was the first man in to change tyres, swapping to the hard compound Bridgestone slick tyres as Stoner began to scythe his way backwards.

With 14 laps left, both the Repsol Honda men came in to change bikes as Toseland began to set fastest lap after fastest lap while the rest of the field began to change bikes, Melandri and Rossi going in first. As the laps unravelled, Toseland began to creep forward. Pedrosa crashed out at half distance and looked to have hurt the hip he injured in a near highside in free practice.
Stoner's tyres came to him late on the race and he managed to get past Capirossi, who was then also swallowed up by Lorenzo and Rossi in the closing laps. Dovizioso also managed to get past on the penultimate lap. Toseland ended in seventh after being passed by team-mate Colin Edwards on the last lap
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