Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa stormed to a runaway victory at Catalunya today, cheered all the way by more than 113,000 cheering Spanish fans. Pedrosa rode his typical start-to-finish race that put him 0.658 seconds ahead after the first lap, 3.9 seconds in front at one-quarter distance and 7.2 seconds ahead midway through the race. He had stretched his advantage to more than eight seconds before he eased off, crossing the line 2.8 seconds ahead of Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha).

Valentino Rossi put yesterday's poor qualifying behind him today with a characteristic charge through the field from ninth on the grid to take second in race. By the time Rossi made it through the pack the race-winner Dani Pedrosa was already some way off in front, but Rossi had a lively battle with Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro) over the last few laps - a replay of last year's race but with the Italian prevailing this time.

After some hard work by his team and engineers overnight, it was clear from this morning's warm-up that Rossi was in better shape and the Italian began his race with the podium as his target. Starting form ninth, he gained one place on the first lap when he passed James Toseland (Yamaha Tech 3) and then made his way steadily through the field, out-braking several riders into turn one on consecutive laps and eventually passing first Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda) and then Stoner to take second on lap nine. Rossi tried to leave Stoner behind but the Australian remained in touch and passed him back on lap 17, sparking an entertaining battle for second spot over the closing stages of the race. Rossi eventually made the decisive move at the start of the penultimate lap and held on to cross the line just over half a second ahead of his rival, with Pedrosa 2.806 seconds in front.

An important 20-point haul sees Rossi hang on to his championship lead, seven points ahead of Pedrosa, whilst teammaate Jorge Lorenzo is still just ahead of Stoner in third despite having to miss today's race while he recovers from Friday's crash.

Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda - 1st
I'm very happy about this win, my thanks to all the people around me. Today was also very important for the championship, I am now five points closer to the lead, but there are still many races ahead of us, so we need to keep pushing and be consistent. We had a few issues in practice here, so my team was thinking what they could do and they made a small adjustment before the race that improved the bike and helped me to run that pace. Once again, a big thanks to them. I couldn't believe the fans, it seems like every year there are more and more. I'm very happy they were here because I know it was difficult to get into the track today. I was all alone, pushing to go faster and faster and I could see everyone cheering me on. At one point I lost a bit of concentration, but I got my focus back and kept pushing. Now we have two days of tests which will be very important for the next few races.

Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha - 2nd
I think that this was quite a good race! It's a long time since we've had a good fight for the top positions like that and today it was like last year with Stoner, but for second instead of first place! I was able to come out on top this year and I am honestly very happy with today's result. After three almost perfect races, yesterday was a very hard day for us but last night we had a very good meeting and today we were able to be much more competitive. My target was the podium so to come second is excellent. I want to watch the race on TV now because I had a lot of fun today and made some good overtakes, with my M1 and my Bridgestone tyres working very well to the end. Once I passed Stoner I tried to go away from him but it wasn't possible, so then I knew it would be a great battle to the end. Pedrosa was incredibly strong today and I think it's impossible to say whether or not I could have gone with him even if I had started from the front. As it was we were penalised by our grid position and, with Pedrosa as fast as this, from the third row it was impossible. In these circumstances I am very happy that we only lost five points to him, we're still leading the championship and I had a great race, so I am content! Tomorrow we will have a test and I think it will be quite interesting to see what we can find out about what happened this weekend and how we can improve for Donington. Thanks to all my team and congratulations to Dani.

Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro - 3rd
Looking at the race set-up from yesterday we were confident that we could do some pretty good times today and I felt it was a race we could win but for some reason from the first lap I kept losing the rear on entry into the corners. That made me lose confidence because at this circuit there are a lot of places where you need to brake and enter at the same time so I missed a lot of braking markers, made some mistakes and lost too much ground to Dani. I managed to work a way around it and in the last part of the race we started to do some reasonable lap times again, but at at that point it was a straight battle with Valentino. There was some pretty close passing with him, at times I could almost feel him next to me, but I knew there were some sections where under normal circumstances I could have been faster. Unfortunately when you are racing somebody of that quality you need everything to be working well and that wasn't the case for us today. It hasn't been a good day and I wasn't too pleased with the way I rode but at the end of the day you can't complain too much about a podium. Now we've got an important test to work out why we had this problem today.

Andrea Dovizioso - JiR Scot Honda - 4th
This was a great race which gave me a lot of satisfaction. Since practice I tested many starts to be ready to go when the red lights went off which is why I had such a good start so I was able to be fast to be able to gain some positions. This is why at the end of lap one I was second. Dani was incredibly fast today, but I was able to stay with Valentino and Casey and was able to keep that pace. The level of competition was very high but when Vale passed Stoner I lost half a second and sadly I was not able to regain this time. Fourth is the same result as Qatar, but the value of this race is different: that was my first MotoGP race but now I have more experience, so this is why I'm looking at improved race-by race results. If I hadn't lost that half-second I could have fought for the podium and the final satisfaction could have been even bigger. Either way, I'm very happy as even when I was alone I was able to maintain a good rhythm and this is good. I want to thank the team for the excellent technical package we had today!

Colin Edwards - Yamaha Tech 3 - 5th
I got a fantastic start and thought - brilliant here we go. But from the second corner I had a problem and to be honest we are scratching our heads a little bit. I struggled because early on I was doing low 43s but then I just couldn't maintain that pace. I'd throw the bike in on the brakes but it would be sideways and I found myself having to change my style like I did in Mugello to help. I'd stop it hard on the brakes, turn it into the corner and then pick it up to accelerate, but in some places where I would normally use second gear I was using third to baby it out of the corners. I did everything I could possibly do too hang in with the group but Andrea just seemed to have a bit more grip than me on the rear. He was able to pull away a little bit on every lap. I could catch him on the brakes but then I'd lose that crucial bit of time on the exit. What we ran in the warm-up was going to be too soft for the race with the temperature but I'm still happy with fifth. It's one of the best results I've had here and now we go to Donington and Assen. They are two tracks I love and I'm sure I'm going to be fighting for the podium again. We kept third in the team championship, which is great for the Tech 3 team, Yamaha and Michelin.

James Toseland - Yamaha Tech 3 - 6th
I'm a little bit mad with myself because like in Mugello, I believe there was a fourth here. I got an okay start and was about seventh but Valentino came by in the first corner. It was a clean move but he left it late, so we were side-by-side going in and there was no way I could turn in because he was there. There was nothing wrong with the pass but I had to go straight on and that lost me the gap. Whether you are doing the same times as the rest of them or not, you can only pull back small amounts of time. We changed the bike this morning and it took a couple of laps to get used to the feel of it. I'd been running soft tyres most of the weekend doing good lap times but going a bit harder for the race, I just didn't have as much grip at the start and it took me a couple of laps to get used to it and I didn't push it hard enough. At this point I'm content with where I am but I'm getting impatient because I feel I can do better, so that's why I'm a bit disappointed with sixth. If I finish sixth and know I couldn't do anymore I'm happy, but now I feel there is more in the bag. But we have really got this new setting working well and it will be a really good package at Donington where I can't wait to go. It's my first home Grand Prix and it feels a long time since I've been to a track I know. I'm getting regular top six finishes but the target at Donington will be to finish much higher and I'm confident with Tech 3, Yamaha and Michelin I can do it.

Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki - 7th
I made a reasonable start and had good first and second corners, but then I was hit by de Angelis and I lost few positions. I got myself back together but with everybody being so quick and close on lap-times it made it very difficult to pass. I got through the field and up to seventh, but I feel if I had had a better start I could have been in the top-five. I really want to pass on a lot of thanks to the team because they gave me a great bike for here and it was very consistent all weekend. I have to work on my qualifying and there is still a little area of the bike where we are struggling with grip and the way it uses the tyre, so hopefully in the next two days of testing we can work on that. I hope Loris is going to be alright soon, because he is a big part to our development and I wish him all the best.

Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda - 8th
We knew the race was going to be tough. Our bike has worked quite well when we had grip but something with the set-up right now we're not getting the tyre life we need. It was okay in the beginning but I couldn't maintain the pace. Something in the set-up is hurting the tyre life, it's quite frustrating. We were in there early and thought we might be on for a good result and then we lost touch and went backward. The rear brake went out towards the end which didn't help things. Eighth place is not what we want. We've got a really important two days of testing which we need. I'm certainly looking forward to it, hopefully we can get a couple of things sorted out.

Shinya Nakano - Gresini Honda - 9th
Yet another difficult race and I cannot be satisfied with it, despite coming out of it with some decent points and a good lap time. It was clear the result wasn't going to be much better from the opening laps, when the riders immediately in front of me quickly began to escape. We clearly need something to help us towards better results and I think the answer could like in changing some aspects of the bike set-up so that it is more suited to my style of riding. I need to be able to ride with more aggression so that I can be fast from the opening laps and stay in touch with the riders in front.

John Hopkins - Kawasaki Racing - 10th
I'm in a lot of pain right now with my injury and that was a really hard race. I tried to pass a few people at the start, but I got boxed out and I lost some ground. I pushed as hard as I could to stay with the group ahead of me, but the pain set in and I had to really focus on settling into a rhythm. It was then a case of finding a way to ride without moving around too much on the machine to finish the race, and although tenth isn't where I want to be, in this situation I'm pleased we managed to achieve that. We still have a lot of work to do with the bike, and hopefully we can be in a good condition for the next race in Britain.

Marco Melandri - Ducati Marlboro - 11th
It's fair to say that things went as well as could be expected after practice. I got a decent start considering how far back I was and ended the first lap in ninth or tenth place, but I couldn't hold on to it. There wasn't much I could do because I was losing so much time in the long corners and it was easy for the other riders to pass me. Now we have two days of tests to see if we can take any steps forward but we need to make a massive change. We'll keep trying.

Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing - 12th
I rode as hard as I possibly could today and I fought hard with Marco for the entire race. I passed him into the turns on many occasions, but his machine was a bit stronger on the straights and it just meant I had a lot of work to do each time he came by. The tyre went off a little in the last few laps, which meant I just didn't quite have enough to re-take him before the finish. I'm happy we had a good race, but we still need to make big improvements to the set-up of the bike. I'm going to Japan for a test where I hope we can try to resolve the rear traction issues I've been suffering, then we'll be back in Europe preparing for Donington Park and, hopefully, we can make another step forwards there.

Sylvain Guintoli - Alice Ducati - 13th
I am surely not happy on how the race went today. I started really bad, not like the last times, founding my self last after the first lap. Then, trying to overtake Toni, I went off track and I lost a lot of time. I did all I could to catch West and Melandri, but when I reached them, probably because I pushed a lot, my rear tyre didn't have the same grip in the last two laps. I hope to do well tomorrow and Tuesday to conquer a better position in Donington.

Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki - DNF/Crash
It has been a really bad end to the weekend, because I felt that everything was working well on the bike and I felt good. I think I could have fought with Chris and James Toseland, but de Angelis tried a bit too hard and put me out of the race. But this is racing and sometimes things like this happen. Now I have to be careful because I have an injury and it will not be so easy for me to recover for the two races in one week. We will see, but I will certainly try to recover as quickly as I can!

Alex De Angelis - Gresini Honda - DNF/Crash
I'm disappointed with the way the race has finished today. I was making up positions after a bad start and had closed in on Capirossi. Loris went too deep into the first corner and ran a little wide, so I tried to get up the inside of him. Unfortunately he closed the door on the exit of the corner and we hit each other and crashed. It's a shame because I think today was a race where we could have picked up some important points. Despite that, in general it has been a good weekend.

Randy De Puniet - LCR Honda - DNF/Crash
I am very disappointed because I made a very good qualifying, the best of this season so far, and got a very good start. On lap one I was fifth and could keep my position easily because my pace was consistent and fast. When I got the sixth place I knew that I could overtake Edwards and was waiting for the correct moment but, at turn one on lap twelve, I lost the front and crashed out. I suffered the same crash on Friday in the free session but do not understand why because the bike set-up was good and in the previous laps I did not feel any particular problem in the front-end. Honestly I do not make any mistake and will check the data to understand what happened.

Toni Elias - Alice Ducati - DQ
I don't have any words. I am sorry for the Team and for my fans that have been really good with me in these days. Just a few seconds before the start I went just a bit forward but I didn't think it was so relevant. In the first laps I was fighting with Marco (Melandri), West and Guintoli and I was too concentrated on the race. When I have seen the pit-board with the penalty sign was too late. Now we have to concentrate in these two days of testing to find some valid solution that will allow us to be competitive in the next race.

2008 Catalunya MotoGP Results - 25 Laps
 1. Pedrosa     Honda    (M) 43:02.175
 2. Rossi       Yamaha   (B) -2.806
 3. Stoner      Ducati   (B) -3.343
 4. Dovizioso   Honda    (M) -10.893
 5. Edwards     Yamaha   (M) -16.426
 6. Toseland    Yamaha   (M) -21.482
 7. Vermuelen   Suzuki   (B) -21.548
 8. Hayden      Honda    (M) -22.280
 9. Nakano      Honda    (B) -22.375
10. Hopkons     Kawasaki (B) -46.835
11. Melandri    Ducati   (B) -57.991
12. West        Kawasaki (B) -59.168
13. Guintoli    Ducati   (B) -60.779
14. de Puniet   Honda    (M) -14 laps DNF/crash
15. de Angelis  Honda    (B) -15 laps DNF/crash
16. Capirossi   Suzuki   (B) -15 laps DNF/crash
17. Elias       Ducati   (B) -25 laps DQ

MotoGP World Championship Point Standings (after 7 of 18 rounds):
 1. Rossi     142
 2. Pedrosa   135
 3. Lorenzo   94
 4. Stoner    92
 5. Edwards   69
 6. Dovizioso 57
 7. Toseland  53
 8. Capirossi 51
 9. Hayden    48
10. Nakano    42