MotoGP Race Reports

Valentino Rossi has put one hand on the 2008 MotoGP World Championship with victory in front of his home fans at Misano on Sunday - a win that matches countryman Giacomo Agostini's all-time record of 68 premier-class victories.

Casey Stoner's hopes of retaining his MotoGP world title suffered a devastating blow at Brno on Sunday, when the Australian crashed out of a one-second lead over Valentino Rossi - gifting the Italian his fifth victory of the season and doubling his title lead to 50 points over the Ducati rider.

Valentino Rossi has scored one of his greatest MotoGP victories after a stunning bar-to-bar battle with Casey Stoner during Sunday's US Grand Prix, which ended in favour of the Italian when Stoner dropped his Ducati with eight laps to go.

Casey Stoner has closed to within 20 points of new MotoGP World Championship leader Valentino Rossi after taking his third victory in a row, and fourth of the season, during Sunday's wet German Grand Prix at Sachsenring.

Gabor Talmacsi has won his first race as a reigning world champion with victory during a five-lap 125cc Dutch TT at Assen, after rain halted the original race and forced a restart.

The second half of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship will start with Dani Pedrosa back on top of the standings, ahead of Valentino Rossi, and reigning title holder Casey Stoner just 29 points from the lead.

Casey Stoner's substantial practice and qualifying advantage at Donington Park transferred into a dominant lights-to-flag victory in Sunday's British Grand Prix at a dry but blustery Donington Park.

Mika Kallio has snatched an unexpected British 250GP victory over Marco Simoncelli and Alvaro Bautista after the race leaders ran wide with one lap to go.

15-year-old Scott Redding has taken a stunning debut grand prix victory in Sunday's 125cc British GP at Donington Park - making him the youngest ever winner of a motorcycle grand prix and the first British rider to win at home since Ian McConnachie in the 80cc race at Silverstone in 1986!

Mike di Meglio has broken clear at the top of the 125cc World Championship standings after taking taken his second win of the season at Catalunya on Sunday.

Marco Simoncelli took his first 250GP win in front of his home fans at Mugello on Sunday - but only after colliding with Hector Barbera at the start of the last lap, sending the Spaniard literally somersaulting along the main straight

Most of the field chose intermediate tyres for the wet but drying conditions, under which Lotus Aprilia's pole sitter Debon emerged into an early lead from KTM's Hiroshi Aoyama.

And superstitious '12+1' world champion Nieto - six times ruler of the 50cc class in addition to seven 125cc titles - played a central part in Rossi's post-race celebrations.

Corsi was involved in a race-long battle with Belson Derbi's Joan Olive, as those involved in the tussle for the win gradually dropped out of the running.

The Spaniard, who suffered a mechanical failure while leading on the last lap of his home Jerez race and was hit from behind by Marco Simoncelli - bringing them both down - blasted past pole sitter Simoncelli along the back straight during the opening lap, then rode into the distance.

Second on the grid Kallio had snatched the lead into turn one, but pole sitter Bautista and ninth placed starter Simoncelli soon found their way around the Finn and began to break away.

Pedrosa, who had qualified on pole for the fourth successive race, lost out to MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner and team-mate Nicky Hayden into turn one, but was quickly back past Hayden and chasing down the Ducati star.

The first ten laps of the Australian Grand Prix saw Stoner put under a surprising amount of pressure by outgoing world champion Nicky Hayden, before the American's rear tyre began sliding a little too much.

After two days of roasting hot weather, dominated by Dani Pedrosa, rain arrived on Sunday, giving the underdogs a welcome chance to shine and increasing pressure at the front of the field - particularly when Pedrosa and second-on-the-grid Valentino Rossi were only 13th and 17th in the wet warm-up

Mattia Pasini had led comfortably from pole until lap 10 of 23, when the Italian lost the front of his Aprilia at the chicane. That left Faubel, Simone Corsi and Talmacsi fighting for the lead, but they were soon joined by Pol Espargaro and Pasini's team-mate Joan Olive.

Pasini took the early lead from third on the grid, then recovered after being bumped down to fourth to make a clear break by the halfway stage of the 23 laps.

Stoner raised his world championship lead to a near unstoppable 60 points over the Italian, with six rounds remaining, by shrugging off the early challenge of Rizla Suzuki's John Hopkins, then delivering the kind of peerless race pace suggested by his practice times.

Nobody had managed to win a MotoGP event from the front of the grid since the 2006 Japanese GP last September, but Stoner blew that statistic out of the window as he simply rode away from the rest of the field in California to snare his sixth victory of the season.

Kallio took his first 250 pole on Saturday, but lost out to Honda's Andrea Dovizioso into turn one - with Aprilia's Alex de Angelis soon demoting the Finn by a further position.