Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi cruised at a four-second win over Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa in stifling heat at the Sepang MotoGP round in Malaysia this morning, with Andrea Dovizioso taking his debut podium.
And The Doctor set yet another personal best, taking his 150th podium finish while outoing champion Casey Stoner battled with two injured hands to finish in sixth
In what ended up as being a somewhat processional race at the Malaysian track, Rossi and Pedrosa went away from the pack after four laps leaving Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden to scrap it out for third.
Pedrosa got the holeshot from Doviziso and Rossi with Stoner getting a blistering start from the outside of the third row, heading into turn one in sixth.
The leading five riders held station for five laps, with Tech3 Yamaha's James Toseland crashing out on the fourth, until Pedrosa and Rossi starting to put a gap on Doviziso and Hayden.
From then, it was a dull affair on a track where it is very difficult to pass until, with 11-laps to go, Rossi put a bold move on Pedrosa into the hairpin.
The Spaniard's distinct weight advantage meant the Italian could do nothing braking down from the either of the two long straights, so had to put a brave pass almost block pass on the Repsol Honda.
Rossi then cruised away from Pedrosa, who is only riding on Bridgestone tyres for the fourth time, and took the win by a little over four seconds.
While Hayden and Dovizioso battled for third, Shinya Nakano snuck past Stoner for fifth place and started to reel in the battle ahead of him.
There was some drama with six laps to go as white flags came out, meaning it was raining on some parts of the track and riders could enter the pits to change bikes. However, the rain never appeared appeared proper and the field stayed out on their slicks.
With four laps to go, Hayden put a move on Dovizioso which was immediately returned by the Italian as they swapped place from turn one right through the turn four.
Hayden then ran wide which put paid to a podium for the Kentuckian and allowed Nakano to close up. The American got back on terms going into the final lap but just could get past the man who will replace him in the Repsol Honda garage next season.
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