Melandri who started from third on the grid, led into Redgate on lap one with Pedrosa on his tail and LCR Honda’s Casey Stoner up with them in third.

As the field negotiated that crucial first lap, Suzuki’s John Hopkins relieved Stoner of third place down through the spectacular Craner Curves with his team-mate Chris Vermeulen now in fourth with Stoner fifth. Kenny Roberts was demonstrating the progress made with the Honda-powered KR bike holding sixth on lap 1.

Melandri held his lead as lap 2 began with Pedrosa hard on his tail and Stoner working on getting past Hopkins. But Melandri and Dani showed they had the pace to leave the field as Hopkins gradually but visibly lost ground as the early order settled.

Pedrosa was anxious to pass Marco by lap 4, but his eagerness nearly got the better of him on the next lap as he lined up a pass at the Melbourne hairpin and wobbled wide. Dani was lucky to stay on the machine, but incredibly he was still third as lap 6 began.

Dani then set a fastest lap of 1 minute 29 seconds as he retrieved the ground he had lost. At this stage, World Championship series leader Nicky Hayden who was circulating in seventh after a compromised qualifying performance, made an error at Foggy’s Esses in his bid to claw his way up the order and rejoined the race in 11th.

Kenny then set a fastest lap of 1m 29.351s on lap 8 as Dani blasted past Hopkins to begin working on Marco for the lead. By lap 10 Kenny had disposed of Hopkins for third place and two laps later Dani had taken the lead he was never to relinquish.

In the space of just one lap Dani, with a clear track, extended his advantage over Marco from 0.6 seconds to 1.5 seconds, setting a fastest lap of 1m 28.7s in the process. There was now only a battle for second place – Dani was long gone.

In the closing laps, Dani eased back to secure his win, but from laps 17 to 23 Dani was lapping almost a quarter of a second faster than anyone else on track. But the three rider group of Melandri, Roberts and Stoner fighting for second were holding each other up allowing Rossi, who had gained on them, to catch them and enter the fray.

Melandri had a huge moment at McLeans when he hit the kerb with his knee, but miraculously the Italian stayed on to stay in the running. As Rossi and Melandri slugged it out for second, Stoner and Roberts lost ground and it was left to the last lap for this dispute to be concluded.

Marco dived past Rossi at the Foggy Esses and looked to be able to hold the advantage until he went wide at the Melbourne Hairpin allowing Rossi past again to hold second at the flag. Dani would have been unaware of all this as he took the flag 3.86 seconds ahead of Rossi, having eased off the gas in the final laps.