Toseland Sixth As Stoner Speeds to Victory in Qatar

James Toseland finished a creditable sixth in his first race in MotoGP in Qatar last night as Casey Stoner showed that he will again be the man to beat this year.

Stoner, who won last year's MotoGP, crossed the line first at the Losail International Circuit ahead of Spanish debutant Jorge Lorenzo on a Yamaha, with Honda's Dani Pedrosa in third.

Australian Stoner, who was fourth on the grid, took the lead on the straight on lap eight and did not look back as he raced to victory in 42 minutes 36.587 seconds. Lorenzo finished over five seconds behind, with Pedrosa around five seconds further back.

"This is an amazing win for me," Stoner said. "I am very happy to start the new season in this fashion. We didn't have a great time in the pre-season. But I enjoyed tonight's race. It was crazy in the first few laps."

Lorenzo, meanwhile, was happy to finish second, in the first MotoGP to be held at night under floodlights. "Congratulations to Stoner. We didn't expect such results - pole position and then the podium finish," he said.

Third-placed Pedrosa said: "It is a bit of a surprise result for us. We didn't do well in the testing, but we worked extremely hard before the first race. I would like to thank my team. It is a great result for Honda."

Toseland will be delighted with his first race in MotoGP. At times he lapped faster than multiple world champion Valentino Rossi, who finished fourth, and Toseland finished more than one second ahead of veteran team-mate Colin Edwards. But the debutant was hampered by his lack of top speed: as the field raced down the start-finish straight at the end of the first lap, Toseland dropped from third to sixth.

Earlier Mattia Pasini of Italy and Hector Barbara of Spain made it a 1-2 for Aprilia in the 250cc with KTM's Mika Kallio of Finland finishing third. The 125cc race went to Spaniard Sergio Gadea of Aprilia. Derbi's Joan Olive of Spain was second and Aprilia's Stefan Bradl of Germany finished third.