Australian Casey Stoner won his first world motorcycling championship by finishing ahead of his archrival Valentino Rossi in the MotoGP race at the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi yesterday.
The 21-year-old Stoner finished sixth in the 24-lap race won by Italian and fellow Ducati rider Loris Capirossi for his third-straight MotoGP triumph at Motegi.
"There is really no better feeling than this," Stoner said.
"I didn't really expect to clinch the title this weekend. It would have been a dream to win the title at any of the remaining races but to do it with three races to go is unreal," he said.
Italian Rossi, the five-time world champion in the premier class, finished 13th on a Yamaha.
His points deficit behind Stoner widened to an unbeatable 83 with three races to go. A win is worth 25 points.
It was the first time that a rider on a Ducati won the drivers championship since the Italian constructors rejoined the purpose-built motorcycle circuit in 2003 after a 30-year break while dominating the World Superbike circuit.
Ducati also moved within an ace of lifting their first ever constructors title of any category as they lead Honda by 69 points.
Capirossi finished in 47 minutes 05.484 seconds, 10.853 seconds ahead of Randy De Puniet of France on a Kawasaki.
Toni Elias of Spain came in third 11.526 seconds behind Capirossi.
Honda rider Dani Pedrosa bolted out of his pole position onto the first bend on the Honda-owned track, still wet after a morning shower.
But Australian Anthony West on a Kawasaki overtook him on the second lap of the 24-lap race on the wet 4.8km track.
Stoner started from the ninth grid position and stayed in West's slipstream.
He surged to the top at the start of the fifth lap as West was called back to the pit as a penalty for a jump-start. Melandri overtook Stoner on the fifth and Rossi surged up into third spot.
While Melandri kept Stoner on his tail, Rossi steadily narrowed the gap with Stoner and finally passed him on the 12th lap for second spot behind Melandri.
After a hard nose-to-tail duel, Rossi jumped to the lead on the 14th just before Melandri moved aside for a pit stop.
Rossi pitted in with nine laps to go and came back on track in second spot some six seconds behind Capirossi but made another pit-stop again after the next lap.
His bike slid off course and almost out of contention on the next lap while Stoner hung on in fifth spot.
Rossi, who has won four races this year against eight for Stoner, could not regain the momentum while Capirossi steadily built up the lead.
Stoner became the second youngest rider to conquer the premier GP class at the age of 21 years and 342 days.
American Freddie Spencer was 84 days younger when he clinched the title -- then 500cc -- in 1983.
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