World Champion Valentino Rossi put the diappointment of Indianapolis behind him with a with his second successive victory at Misano, to stamp his authority on the MotoGP title competition.
Crossing the lne just 2.4 seconds ahead of team mate and rival Jorge Lorenzo at the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, the italian leads the table by 30 points with only four races to run.
Leading the early laps, Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa could not match the pace of the Fiat Yamaha bikes, the Spaniard finishing a good ten seconds behibd his countryman to claim third place.
There was drama in the early stages when Alex de Angelis on the San Carlo Honda Gresini motorcycle crashed out while making a mess of the first corner. American riders, Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden impeded by the San Marino rider and sliding out of the race also.
Italians, Andrea Dovizioso on the Repsol Honda and Loris Capirossi on the Rizla Suzuki, duelled between themselves behind the first three, with Dovizioso eventually finishing a miniscule two-tenths of a second ahead for his third fourth place completion in a row.
The rest of the top ten included Toni Elías, Mika Kallio, Marco Melandri, Chris Vermeulen and Englishman James Toseland. Temporary Pramac Racing rider Aleix Espargaró again followed up his creditable performance in Indianpolis with an eleventh spot this time out.
In the 250cc race. a fantastic deul between Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team) and local boy Mattia Pasini (Team Toth Aprilia) went all the way to the finish. In a hard fought race which could have been either risers, the mortorcycle of the Spaniard took the chequered flag a mere four hundredths of a second ahead of the Italian,
An exciting finale in the 125cc event saw the two leading riders, Andrea Iannone (Ongetta Team I.S.P.A.) and Pol Espargaró (Derbi Racing Team), go out of the race after crashing the very last corner. Julián Simón (Bancaja Aspar) took advantage to notch another crucial win.
