Ducati Corse rider Casey Stoner scored a masterful victory at Istanbul Park today to regain the MotoGP World Championship lead while team-mate Loris Capirossi announced his renaissance with a gritty ride to third place. The pair's impressive performance also puts Ducati at the top of the constructors' title chase and the Ducati Marlboro Team at the top of the teams' championship.

Stoner swept into the lead at the end of the first lap and no one could get close enough to challenge him after that, the Australian extending his advantage throughout to win by 6.2 seconds. Capirossi had a less lonely race, running second behind Stoner early on, then battling back and forth with a group of riders. He lost third place to fellow Ducati GP7 rider Alex Barros exiting Turn 11 on the last lap but fought back into the final chicane to take his first podium of 2007. Three Ducatis in the top four made this the best-ever MotoGP race for the legendary Italian marque. Bridgestone also enjoyed its best MotoGP result, monopolising the top six places.

Casey Stoner, race winner, World Championship leader on 61 points

"We had a great race, unfortunately some of the other riders didn't have such a good race. Really, with the way the Ducati and the Bridgestones were today we couldn't do anything wrong. I got past Colin (Edwards) on the first lap because I wanted to make sure I didn't get held up and bumped back like in Jerez. Then Valentino ran off the track, pretty much gifting me first position. From there we put some good laps together, built a gap and continued from there because some of the other riders were having a battle. I don't want to sound confident, but at first I was pushing hard to get a gap, then after it got to 2.53 seconds I tried to slow the pace, just to make sure everything was safe, and the lap times actually dropped from trying to go a bit slower. The Bridgestone tyres were absolutely perfect, in fact the whole package was just perfect. I have to thank a lot of people, all the team and everybody who's contributed to my career, including Anthony Peadon (Australian former international sprint cyclist) for training me over the last few weeks.
 

"We are really determined this year, we're not expecting much, we're just doing the best job we can. With Ducati and Marlboro and everybody together I think we can do a really good job and I think and I hope that we can get stronger as the season goes on."

Loris Capirossi, 3rd place, 11th in World Championship on 20 points

"The whole weekend has been fantastic for me, I'm back! Twenty days ago I had the best moment of my life when our first kid was born, so now I'm enjoying riding again and I hope my championship starts here because we still have 15 races to go. Everything worked so good, I got a good start and tried to follow Casey but he was so strong and I preferred to go a little slower. I fought a lot, especially with Alex on the last lap. I lost the front in the fast right, my bike start shaking a lot and Alex overtook me, so I said ?okay, I have only one opportunity to make the podium, to out-brake Alex at the chicane'. I want to say thank you very much to team, to everyone for keeping confidence in me after two difficult races."

Federico Minoli, President and CEO Ducati Motor Holding

"Three Ducatis in the top four is really amazing, it's our best-ever result in MotoGP, a fantastic day. Casey has been so strong all weekend, Loris showed a lot of character holding onto third and I'm really happy for Alex too. To see our other team go so well is another testimony to the talent of our engineers. Casey again showed great maturity, he kept extending his advantage throughout the race and always kept his cool. The kid has a great future in front of him."