Last year's Catalunya MotoGP saw one of the biggest, nastiest crashes in recent history as Sete Gibernau tail-ended his Ducati team-mate Loris Capirossi on the first turn, sending his bike somersaulting across the track and skittling Melandri, Pedrosa and Hopkins at the same time. For Gibernau it was a career changing - ultimately a career ending - crash, while for both Melandri and Capirossi it meant the end of any real chance they may have had for challenging for the title that year. So it's fair to say that there must have been some trepidation on the part of both the Italian riders in particular as they came back to the Catalunya circuit for the first time since leaving in ambulances.

Anyway, the circuit hasn't really changed since last year. It's still a beautifully laid out, fast, flowing and intensely challenging track that offers prospects of some of the best racing on the calendar. And certainly the initial practice sessions were promising as local hero Dani Pedrosa really got his head down and seared to the top of the timesheets, closely followed by fellow local Toni Elias. Men of the moment Stoner and Rossi were well in the hunt as well, of course, taking their turns at the top of the session times but Pedrosa finished the day on top, despite his enjoying a spectacular trip into the scenery in the second session. Saturday practice was more of the same, with Pedrosa going well. But it was Casey Stoner who made the running this time, with a surprise appearance in second place from Randy de Puniet, the Kawasaki rider pushing through his injuries to record a career best. John Hopkins can always be relied on to put on a good show, and sure enough he managed third, ahead of Rossi and Pedrosa. But Pedrosa's Friday time was good enough to still put him in third place as qualifying started.

Qualifying is one of the places where Valentino Rossi is really quite good. Tactically as well as simply riding. And this was no exception. Rossi set a new lap record around two thirds of the way through the session and took pole quite comfortably from Randy de Puniet. Yes, the Kawasaki rider rode a blinding qualifying session to end up just six hundredths of a second behind Rossi and take team green's first dry front row since...you know I can't think of the last time a Kawasaki was on the front row. Anyway, the young Frenchman rode brilliantly, despite carrying injuries from Mugello. It was a sweetener for the team as well, having lost Olivier Jacque to yet another accident in the morning session. Jacque is currently under observation in hospital ad though his injuries appear to be less severe than at first appeared we wish him well.

Third place on the grid was filled by yesterday's leader Dani Pedrosa, the young local managing not to crack under the pressure of hundreds of thousands of fans calling his name. Casey Stoner dropped off the pace a little, qualifying fourth to head the second row from Hopkins and Edwards, while Nicky Hayden continued his form to lead the third row from Melandri and Elias. Alex Hofmann rounded out the top ten on the D'Antin Ducati, the first rider to be more than a second slower than pole.

As is so often the case, though, the race turned out to be somewhat different from what had gone earlier. As the lights went out it was Dani Pedrosa who got the best launch off the line, closely followed by Casey Stoner, with John Hopkins a surprise third, ahead of Rossi who had got a slow start. Randy de Puniet dropped back into sixth after getting mugged by Toni Elias while Colin Edwards' grim season continued with his rapid progression back through the field to seventh by the end of the first lap.

The jubilation of the partisan local crowd was short lived, though, as Stoner out-dragged Pedrosa down the straight and then outbraked him at the end to take the lead in some style at the very begriming of the second lap. Slightly further back, Rossi and Hopkins were having the mother and father of a scrap. Hopper is spectacularly good on the brakes, and Rossi just couldn't get past, the Suzuki and the Yamaha having similar performance and handling. In fact, it wasn't until lap three that Rossi managed to pass Hopper, cutting in hard and managing to get under the Suzuki rider on one of the several left handers. Stoner, in the meantime, was making full use of his advantage at the front, and was steadily though slowly eking out a gap over the pursuing Pedrosa. Rossi, of course, was having none of it and set off after the leading pair in vintage style. It didn't take long to catch Pedrosa, but this being the young Spaniard's home circuit and all, never has it been more true to say that catching is one thing, passing is something else entirely. Pedrosa seems to have just one weakness on the track. He doesn't seem to be as good on the brakes as many others. Perhaps through a lack of confidence in the front, but whatever the reason it gives a wily old campaigner like Valentino Rossi something to exploit. And exploit it he did, pushing Pedrosa into a late braking battle, running him a little wide and then blocking his attempt to cut back in at the end of the straight. Firm but fair, I think you'd have to say. So from lap eleven, Rossi was hunting Stoner down.

Not wanting to ignore the rest of the field, some extremely robust riding by Toni Elias saw him and Randy de Puniet touch during an incident in which the Frenchman was entirely blameless. Fortunately both riders stayed on, though it was Elias who got the advantage. The local rider continued to push hard for a few more laps, though unable to remain ahead of a vengeful de Puniet, before his Honda expired in a cloud of smoke, ending his race. Further back, Loris Capirossi had an appalling qualifying session and started from the back row. But Loris is made of sterner stuff, and after a rather circumspect first corner - he doesn't have happy memories from last year - he really got his head down and charged through the field, getting up to eleventh by the end of the first lap from his seventeenth place start. A bit of a scrap with Marco Melandri held him up a bit but then he was on the way again, eventually bullying and carving his way through to an extremely well deserved sixth place. Nicky Hayden had a pretty dire start, dropping to ninth in the first lap and then continuing to fade. Brief bursts of excellence shone through, but the champion is not having a happy time of it this year and he really shouldn't be scrapping for a top ten finish with Alex Barros and Chris Vermeulen. Talking of Vermeulen, the young Australian had a disappointing qualifying, ending up back in eleventh after a couple of issues. But he's fast and, after a couple of laps mucking around with Barros and finding just how fast that Ducati is in a straight line, he got past and set about trying to improve his standing. He did a fine job of it too, passing Capirossi on the last lap for sixth, only to lose it in the final drag to the line, that Ducati horsepower proving too much to argue with. Seventh place from an eleventh start still isn't bad at all. Alex Barros is still a force to be reckoned with on the right day, and though today he could only manage eighth it was still a spirited ride. Behind Barros, Marco Melandri came in after another strange performance from the mercurial Italian rider. Obviously Catalunya has dodgy memories for him as well, but his biggest problem is, and always has been, his inconsistency. Melandri is very fast when he's on form, but when he isn't he becomes untidy and genuinely not that quick. Sometimes he'll combine the two in one race, as he did here. There were times when it looked as though he could be on for a good finish and times when he looked as though he would be taking an early bath. Ninth is still a respectable place, but Marco Melandri can do, and has done, so much better. Someone else who is collecting demons rather than exorcising them is Colin Edwards. Tenth place, salvaged on the last lap after a lunge past Nicky Hayden, is pretty poor when your team mate is up at the front. Edwards' bike was suffering from a chronic lack of grip at both ends, losing the front under braking and the back under power to make a complete nightmare setup. It looks as though the Texan can't do anything right this year, which is a shame because he sure works hard.

Back up at the front, Rossi and Stoner embarked on an absolute ding-dong battle which ran all the way to the last lap. There were several occasions when Rossi made a pass, made it stick and actually opened up a bit of a gap. But that Ducati really is quick, and by the end of the main straight Stoner was right there again. Having to ride like that is slower than having the space to ride fasterlines - you're defending your position which actually slows you down as your lines are compromised - so Rossi was never able to make full use of his ability and the Yamaha's agility to pull away. And consequently, though the Italian led forfour whole laps and several sections of laps, the Ducati rider came past on the penultimate lap, made it stick and managed to stay out there to take the win by just under seven hundredths of a second. Pedrosa, who had kept his cool throughout, came in just a third of a second later, while Hopkins finished a safe but distant fourth, some seven seconds back. Randy de Puniet brought the Kawasaki home a lonely fifth, ten seconds behind Hopper and just two ahead of Capirossi who had Vermeulen breathing down his neck, under a tenth behind.

Casey Stoner, it has to be said, has done a sterling job of shaking off his crash and burn image from last season, and is riding with a maturity that belies his years. I'll leave it to Valentino Rossi - a man who I think we might call an expert as well as an eyewitness - to sum up Stoner's ride today.

"I don't think I could have done anymore today! We know that we can beat Stoner but today he rode like a god and he's a fantastic rival, so congratulations to him."

The next round is at Donington in two weeks time. Rossi is very hard to beat around there, though Pedrosa managed last year. It's Rizla Suzuki's home circuit, so the pressure will be on them, and Casey Stoner rode to a solid fourth last year as well. It's going to be a cracking race...

Italian MotoGP Results

1. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
2. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
4. John Hopkins (Suzuki)
5. Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki)
6. Loris Capirossi (Ducati)
7. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki)
8. Alex Barros (Ducati)
9. Marco Melandri (Honda)
10. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)

MotoGP standings (after seven rounds)

1. Casey Stoner 140
2. Valentino Rossi 126
3. Daniel Pedrosa 98
4. Marco Melandri 75
5. Chris Vermeulen 72
6. John Hopkins 72
7. Loris Capirossi 57
8. Alex Barros 51
9. Toni Elias 44
10. Colin Edwards 45

SB