STONER WINS MOTOGP ROUND 3 IN PORTUGAL

Stoner qualified on pole, fractionally ahead of his Repsol Homda team mate, Dani Pedrosa. Tech 4 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow completed the front row of the grid. Round 1 winner, Factory Yamaha Racing's Jorge Lorenzo qualified fourth, alongside Ben Spies and Alvaro Bautista. Reflecting his wretched 2012 season so far, Ducati's Valentino Rossi qualified ninth.

In dry conditions, but with rain threatening to throw a spanner in the works, Pedrosa and Stoner gave the crowd action from the start, the two touching fairings going into turn one, with Stoner taking the lead into turn two. Lorenzo took full advantage of this to sneak into second to hunt down Stoner, who in typical Stoner-style, was bolting early in an effort to put a gap on the rest of the field.

Lorenzo's teammate Spies, who had been in fourth, ran wide early on to drop back down the order into seventh, with Rossi on his tail. Meanwhile, four laps in, Monster Yamaha Tech 3's Andrea Dovizioso pushed past his teammate Cal Crutchlow to go into fourth place behind Pedrosa.

With 21 laps to go, Lorenzo and Pedrosa were chipping away at Stoner's lead, as they closed the gap to just under one second. On the same lap, Crutchlow ran wide in the first turn whilst trying to outbreak his teammate, yet managed to retain his position, as the pair continued their lonely battle for fourth.

With 16 laps to go Speed Master's CRT entry Mattia Pasini crashed out as he lost the front of his ART machine, while at the same time Avintia Blusens' Ivan Silva retired after suffering too much pain from his warm-up crash.
At the halfway point of the race, Lorenzo had closed in on Stoner, while Spies had passed LCR Honda MotoGP's Stefan Bradl to take eighth. With the battle between the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 pair hotting up, Crutchlow was desperate to get past Dovizioso, but once again forced his bike off track. Further down the field, Bradl re-passed Spies for eighth, though the American soon fought back.

Three laps before the end, just as Lorenzo seemed to be catching Stoner, the Australian put the hammer down to open the gap to more than a second once more. At the end it was Stoner who took the checquered flag in front of Lorenzo and Pedrosa. The Estoril win was a history-making one for the Aussie, as he's now won a premier-class race at every single track on the MotoGP calendar.

Off the podium, Dovizioso held off the late charge from Crutchlow to take fourth, finishing in front of his teammate for the first time this season. San Carlo Honda Gresini's Álvaro Bautista put in a solid performance as he held sixth position from start to finish. Valentino Rossi claimed his best finish of the season so far in seventh, beating Spies, who did not manage to recover from a difficult start to the race. LCR's Stefan Bradl finished in ninth, whilst Pramac Racing's Héctor Barberá rounded out the top ten.

Power Electronics Aspar's Aleix Espargaro took top CRT spot (twelfth overall) for a second race in succession, finishing ahead of Randy de Puniet and Michele Pirro.

Avintia Blusens' day went from bad to worse, as Yonny Hernandez crashed out with 11 laps to go, but walked away unscathed. James Ellison pulled into the pits nine laps before the end with a mechanical issue on his ART bike. Cardion AB Racing´s Karel Abraham suffered a crash five laps from the end, making this the third Grand Prix in succession he has not been able to finish.

2012 MOTOGP World Championship

Round 3 - Estoril, Portugal
May 6, 2012

1. Casey STONER Honda 45'37.513
2. Jorge LORENZO Yamaha +1.421
3. Dani PEDROSA Honda +3.621
4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Yamaha +13.846
5. Cal CRUTCHLOW Yamaha +16.690
6. Alvaro BAUTISTA Honda +21.884
7. Valentino ROSSI Ducati +26.797
8. Ben SPIES Yamaha +33.262
9. Stefan BRADL Honda +35.867
10. Hector BARBERA Ducati +53.363

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS - after 3 of 18 rounds
1. STONER 66
2. LORENZO 65
3. PEDROSA 52
4. CRUTCHLOW 37
5. DOVIZOSO 35
6. BAUTISTA 29
7. BRADL 24
8. HAYDEN 23
9. ROSSI 22
10. BARBERA 19

In the Moto2 class, Australia's Ant West finished 17th after qualifying 26th. In Moto3, Arthur Sissis finished 13th after qualifying in 16th. So far this season both Aussies in the secondary classes, when they've completed the race, have finished better than their qualifying positions.

The MotoGP grid will remain at Estoril for the first in-season test of 2012. The next round of the MotoGP World Championship will be at Le Mans, France, on May 20, 2012.

Images: motogp.com