Honda’s Dani Pedrosa dominated the season ending Spanish MotoGP in Valencia last Sunday after pole sitter Casey Stoner crashed his Ducati during the formation lap.

Stoner, who had topped the time sheets during the practice and qualifying sessions crashed during formation lap due to cold tires. The Australian rider was forced to retire leaving the pole position slot empty at the start.

With Stoner out of the way, Pedrosa, who started from second, had perfect start and immediately opened a wide gap over the rest of the field that was led by Honda’s Tony Elias and the Yamaha’s of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.

Both Lorenzo and Rossi managed to overtake Elias on lap five, but Pedrosa was already 2.4 seconds ahead.

Pedrosa increased his gap from the Yamaha duo who were battling for second and third position. During the last 13 laps, Lorenzo edged closer to Rossi but the gap between the two stayed at around one second.

The Honda rider crossed the chequeredflag first with Rossi and Lorenzo following in second and third place respectively.

Tech 3 Yamaha’s Colin Edwards finished in fourth ahead of Nicky Hayden's Ducati, with Elias finishing sixth.

"It's fantastic to win here and I really wasn't expecting it," Pedrosa said after the race. "We had some problems with the set-up but in the end we proved we were competitive."

Rossi for his part said, "I'm really happy about this result because it was fantastic to be able to ride well at Valencia and it's my best finish here since 2004.

Of course it would have been better to win but I lost some time at the start battling with Elias and Lorenzo and by that time Pedrosa had gone and at this track it's almost impossible to make up a two-second gap.”

“We've ended the championship on the podium and it's been a great season, another world title and the triple crown for Yamaha, I am very proud. Thank you to Yamaha, all my team, Bridgestone and everyone else!" Rossi added.