This race was most notable for its thrilling ending, where Italian satellite Gresini Honda rider Marco Melandri overtook the Australian rookie Casey Stoner at the last corner, denying him his first ever win.

Chris Vermeulen took the pole position on Saturday - his first ever - followed by Nicky Hayden in second place and Sete Gibernau in third.

Rossi only managed to qualify in a lowly eleventh position, and needed a strong result to stay in the title fight.

Gibernau moved up one place (third to second) and John Hopkins two (fifth to third), as did Casey Stoner (seventh to fifth).

Melandri meanwhile recovered a whopping eight positions, with Valentino Rossi only making up one place (eleventh to tenth).

Rossi meanwhile ran wide at Turn 7, making him drop back all the way to fourteenth after he made up a few places.

Lap seven and the top runners consist out of Gibernau, Hopkins, Stoner, Hayden and Melandri, with a +1.1 second gap back to Vermeulen in sixth.

Right before lap eight began, Stoner managed to get a better exit speed at Turn 14, allowing him to overtake Hopkins at the start/finish straight.

Hayden held on however, using the better acceleration and traction of his Repsol Honda to eventually pull off the move going into Turn 5.

By lap ten, Stoner lost yet another position, this time to the other Repsol Honda of Dani Pedrosa, who overtook him on the start/finish straight for fourth.

Lap twelve - just over the halfway point - and the top six is as follows: Melandri, Pedrosa, Hayden, Stoner, Gibernau and Vermeulen, with a +1 second gap back to Capirossi.

Rossi meanwhile has managed to overtake Edwards on the start/finish straight for eighth place, with Elías doing likewise for ninth.

Pedrosa starts to pull a gap to his teammate Hayden and James Ellison entered the pits to change his Dunlop tyres.

While Rossi is up into fifth, he still has a +6,7 gap to fourth place Stoner, making a podium finish highly unlikely for him.

Melandri meanwhile made a surprise move on Hayden at Turn 7, forcing him to go a bit wide and snatching second place from him.

Going into lap eighteen and Stoner makes good use of a small mistake of Pedrosa, who kept his front wheel in the air and lost some speed as a result, overtaking him for second on the start/finish straight.

Hayden went wide going into Turn 12, making him lose touch with the top three (Stoner, Melandri and Pedrosa).

When exiting Turn 14 however, Melandri went slower than usual - possibly because of a missed gear, allowing Pedrosa to snatch second place from him at the beginning of the start/finish straight.

Lap twenty and Hayden is dropping back significantly, possibly due to tyre problems.

Pedrosa crossed the line in a lowly fourteenth place, being able to get back up on his bike after the fall.

Casey Stoner moves up to fourth with 41 and Valentino Rossi drops one place with 40 points.