31/08/08 - A home victory and the retirement of rival Casey Stoner at Misano left Valentino Rossi one step closer to a sixth MotoGP World Championship, and his fans in celebratory mood amidst the yellow grandstands. The Fiat Yamaha rider was able to avenge his 2007 Misano disappointment and add the circuit to his list of successful tracks, with only the next circuit on the calendar, Indianapolis, missing from his impressive resume.

Rossi was, for the third race in succession, starting from second on the grid for the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. He could do nothing to stop title rival Stoner from taking the holeshot early, however, as the reigning World Champion established a large gap even before the first time that the riders crossed the start/finish line. Rossi was making up ground by the seventh lap, but the fans were denied a fascinating direct battle between the two when Stoner lost control of his Ducati Desmosedici GP8 and, as he did at Brno two weeks ago, saw his race come to an early conclusion.

From then on, Rossi completed the race in relatively untroubled fashion, bringing his Yamaha M1 home safely and taking his 68th premier class victory, in doing so equalling the record of MotoGP Legend Giacomo Agostini. Four consecutive race victories, a 75 point advantage in the standings and just five events remaining in 2008 mean that `The Doctor´ can now breathe a little easier after this latest triumph.

Teammate Jorge Lorenzo made his podium return at Misano with the runner-up spot, his first rostrum finish since the visit to Le Mans back in May. The MotoGP rookie was unable to catch up with his fellow Fiat Yamaha rider, but nonetheless had a comfortable advantage of his own over third place finisher Toni Elias.

Alice Team rider Elias followed his second place at Brno with another rostrum, the first time that he has taken consecutive podiums in the premier class. He held off another Spaniard in Repsol Honda´s Dani Pedrosa, whose teammate Nicky Hayden decided to miss both the warmup and race due to his persistent foot injury. Pedrosa closed the gap between himself and second placed Stoner to just two points.

Chris Vermeulen rounded off the top six for Rizla Suzuki, ahead of James Toseland, Loris Capirossi, Andrea Dovizioso, Marco Melandri and Colin Edwards.

San Marino´s MotoGP representative Alex de Angelis lasted just over a lap of his home race, and his disappointment was shared by LCR Honda´s Randy de Puniet, who also hit the ground early on.

250cc

Alvaro Bautista picked up a third victory of 2008 and 25 points for his 250cc title fightback in an edge-of-seat showdown in Misano. The Spaniard had a dream race, winning from the third row of the grid and seeing some of the big names in the category fall by the wayside.

Despite having to fight past some tough riders, Bautista perhaps had the most reserved race of those in the leading pack. The Mapfre Aspar rider somehow managed to avoid some big crashes and hard overtaking moves that caught out some of the expected challengers for the win, moving himself up to third in the overall classification and just a point behind Mika Kallio.

Yuki Takahashi was another rider who managed to steer clear of trouble, and got off to a fantastic start from the front row. JiR Team Scot´s Japanese star took his best result of the year with the runner-up spot behind Bautista.

One man never far away from the action in Misano was final podium finisher Hector Barbera, who was involved in some of the key incidents of the race. He twice ran wide with rival Marco Simoncelli as they engaged in a 250cc game of `chicken´, and also did little to endear himself to the San Marino faithful as his fight with Mattia Pasini ended with the home rider taking a huge crash on turn twelve of lap eleven. The Italian escaped unhurt, but obviously upset with Barbera.

Roberto Locatelli was the highest placing Italian rider in an impressive showing for the Metis Gilera man, coming home fourth ahead of Repsol KTM´s Julian Simon. Series leader Simoncelli emerged unscathed from his battle with Barbera, but crashed of his own accord on lap 21 to rule himself out of the podium fight. He eventually came home in sixth.

Thomas Luthi, Ratthapark Wilairot, Lukas Pesek and Karel Abraham were the other four riders in the top ten, which did not include Red Bull KTM riders Kallio and Hiroshi Aoyama. They collided on the second lap, leading to some heated discussion in the garage in the aftermath of a race without points for either rider.

125cc

Reigning 125cc World Champion Gabor Talmacsi further aided his quest to retain the title with a masterful victory at Misano. The Hungarian clearly set the fastest race pace over the 23-lap contest, with the kind of consistency that permitted him to make a mid-race slip-up and still take the chequered flag ahead of his rivals.

Having taken off from pole position for the third race in succession, Talmacsi had –aside from losing the first corner holeshot- been leading the way comfortably until lap eleven. The Bancaja Aspar rider saw his advantage overcome when he wobbled on a corner which later claimed series leader Mike di Meglio, Talmacsi´s trouble letting Bradley Smith pass him. The title holder had to start from scratch, but reeled in Smith and extended a lead over the Briton to win by more than 2.5 seconds.

Smith equaled his best ever Grand Prix result with second place, riding a solitary race after Talmacsi had broken free. Behind him, the fight for the final podium spot became the battle of the race, with a heartbreaking conclusion for Joan Olive. The Spaniard crashed on the final corner under pressure from Simone Corsi, who held his nerve for a rostrum return.

World Championship rookie Marc Marquez came home fourth, with Nico Terol and Andrea Iannone also in the top six. Sandro Cortese, Dominique Aegerter, Esteve Rabat and Sergio Gadea completed the first ten past the line.

Di Meglio continues to lead the overall classification, with his advantage over Corsi reduced to 28 points. Talmacsi moves up a place to third, a further eleven points down.