Champion Rossi posts season's 10th win

Seven-times world motorcycling champion Valentino Rossi got back to winning ways with a record 10th victory of the season at the Qatar Grand Prix on Saturday.

The Italian Yamaha rider had missed out on race victories over the last two weekends in Japan and Malaysia as he sealed his fifth successive world title.

The 26-year-old said earlier in the week that he was out for revenge on the Losail circuit, where he was forced to start from the back of the grid last year and slid out of the race while trying to make up lost ground.

He extracted that revenge on Saturday, passing compatriot Marco Melandri on a Honda in the closing stages after early leader Sete Gibernau of Spain had veered off course on the 18th of the 22 laps.

Gibernau, last year's winner here, recovered to finish fifth.

Rossi, who started third on the grid, surpassed the record he set last year for most victories in a single campaign by a Yamaha rider in the premier class.

"For me, it was the best race of the year," said Rossi, who was timed at 43 minutes 33.759 seconds. "It feels incredible to have won here. Everybody gave more than 100 percent and the battle was fantastic.

"It was a tough race with quite a few strong riders battling it out at the finish. It was not easy to overtake, but a few of them managed to do it."

Melandri, racing despite an ankle injury sustained when Rossi ran into him in Japan last month, moved up to third in the championship standings on 157 points, just two behind fellow Italian Max Biaggi who failed to score any points on Saturday.

SUPREMACY BATTLE

Melandri and Rossi fought for supremacy in the closing two laps before the Honda rider fell back into second place and finished 1.67 seconds adrift.

"I tried to take him back during the last lap but I made a little mistake," said Melandri, 23. "But anyway I am so happy.

"It was a wonderful race. The bike set-up was superb and I thank my team and technicians for that."

Nicky Hayden of the United States was third on a Honda, 3.866 seconds behind Melandri.

Ducati's Italian rider Loris Capriossi started on pole position but was rapidly overtaken and was languishing in sixth place after only two laps.

In the 250cc class, Australian Casey Stoner won his second consecutive race to cut defending champion Dani Pedrosa's once comfortable championship lead to 26 points with three races remaining. Spaniard Pedrosa was fourth.

The 19-year-old Aprilia rider raced off into an early lead which he never looked like giving up and cruised to his fourth victory of the season leaving world champion Pedrosa well behind him fighting it out for a place on the podium.

Spain's Jorge Lorenzo was second while his fellow Honda rider and 125cc world champion Andrea Dovizioso of Italy pipped Spaniard Pedrosa to the last place on the podium to consolidate his third place in the standings.

Hungarian Gregor Talmacsi mugged his championship-chasing KTM team mate Mika Kallio on the line to win the 125cc race but the Finn still managed to take a two-point lead in the title race over Swiss Thomas Luthi, who was sixth.