Australia's Casey Stoner blew away his rivals to win the Turkish MotoGP race on Sunday to take the overall lead in the championship.

Spaniard Toni Elias finished second for Honda, edging out Stoner's Ducati team mate Loris Capirossi of Italy who finished more than eight seconds behind the winner.

Stoner, who led for most of the race and finished 6.2 seconds ahead of Elias, capitalised on a first lap error by five-time Italian world champion Valentino Rossi, who began on pole.

The former champion rode wide into the grass on a turn early on, re-entering the race in fifth place. He finished tenth after recovering to second place.

"It was a little strange because I managed to get past Valentino quite early, from then on I didn't make any mistakes," Stoner told a news conference.

Ducati's strong finish in Istanbul puts the team in first place after the third race of the season.

Rossi, who won at the second race of the season in Jerez, is second overall with 51 points, 10 behind Stoner.

While the first lap saw Rossi riding off the blacktop and into the green, Colin Edwards and Dani Pedrosa, second and third on the starting grid, walked off the track after a tangle took them out of the race in the first lap.

Italy's Andrea Dovizisio put Honda at the top of the podium in the 250cc Grand Prix, coming from third in the last kilometre to elbow out Spanish Aprilia team mates Jorge Lorenzo and Alvaro Bautisto.

Bautista took third place in his third race on a 250cc motorcycle, crossing the line 0.318 seconds behind Dovizisio.

Italy's Simone Corsi claimed his first victory in the 125cc race, edging out Joan Olive of Spain in the final turn to claim his first career victory in the class.