World champion Casey Stoner scored an emphatic victory in the Qatar MotoGP while British rookie James Toseland took sixth place.

Australian Ducati man Stoner set a punishing pace over the second half of the race to open a five-second margin ahead of debutant Jorge Lorenzo in second.

Repsol Honda man Dani Pedrosa enjoyed a jet-propelled start, hitting the front from the third row of the grid. Despite losing ground to the front two, he was still able to mount the bottom step of the podium.

Toseland was involved in a three-way dice with Honda rookie Andrea Dovizioso and multiple world champion Valentino Rossi for fourth, fifth and sixth.

An emotional Dovizioso prevailed, while Rossi had enough experience to hold off the Briton's tech 3 Yamaha, although Toseland declared himself "well happy" with sixth.

Toseland made a good start, but his lack of top speed became evident as the field raced down the start-finish straight at the end of the first lap, with the Sheffield rider dropping from third to sixth.

Pedrosa opened up a gap of more than a second before Stoner gradually came to the fore to restore order.

He struggled to shake off 250cc world champion Lorenzo, however, who raced on the same Fiat Yamaha bike as Rossi but profited from Michelin tyres whereas his team-mate used Bridgestone.

The French rubber thrived on cool track conditions that fell from 20 to 17 degrees during the 40-minute race.

Chris Vermeulen showed how badly Bridgestone struggled, and had to bring his Suzuki in mid-race to replace his shredded tyres. The Australian finished a lap off the pace.

Qatar MotoGP result

1 - Casey Stoner (Ducati)

2 - Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)

3 - Dani Pedrosa (Honda)

4 - Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)

5 - Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)

6 - James Toseland (Yamaha)

7 - Colin Edwards (Yamaha)

8 - Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)

9 - Randy De Puniet (Honda)

10 - Nicky Hayden (Honda)

11 - Marco Melandri (Ducati)

12 - John Hopkins (Kawasaki)

13 - Shinya Nakano (Honda)

14 - Toni Elias (Ducati)

15 - Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati)

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Alex Chick / Eurosport