Casey Stoner may as well have handed the Moto GP championship trophy to rival Valentino Rossi himself yesterday after yet another disappointing result at Misano.

Casey continued his run of DNFs when his front tyre gave way after taking a commanding lead at the start of the race.

Casey repeated the brilliant qualifying from previous rounds putting him on pole position, but he threw it all away again and left Rossi with a 75 point lead which given his recent form virtually guarantees him the championship with only 5 rounds to go.

Valentino Rossi delighted his home crowd by winning the GP easily and equalling the Moto GP win record of Giacomo Agostini of 68 wins in the premier class.

A revitalised Jorge Lorenzo took a good 2nd place and Toni Elias took a surprising 3rd place and at least got a Ducati on the podium even if it was the wrong one!

Casey Stoner blamed a front tyre issue for his off saying that the tyre felt no good right from the first lap.