Sunday’s Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana appeared to be a perfect place to bring the curtain down on what had been a sensational conclusion to Casey Stoner’s 2009 MotoGP World Championship season. However, it all went wrong for the winner of the last two GPs when during the sighting lap around the 2.517-mile, 14-turn Ricardo Circuit Tormo in Valencia, Spain, highsided his Marlboro Ducati Desmosedici GP9 and could not start the race.

Taking full advantage of the situation was Spaniard Dani Pedrosa and his Repsol Honda RC212V. Pedrosa holeshot the start from his front row grid position and held it to the very end of the race. The victory – Dani’s second of the season - allowed Pedrosa to make up the 11-point lead that Stoner had on him prior to the start of the season-ending Grand Prix, beating 2009 World Champion Valentino Rossi across the finish line by 2.63 seconds ahead of World Champion Valentino. Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo placed third.

"It's really great to finish off the season with a win, especially here in front of my home fans," Pedrosa said after the race. "I was waiting on the grid with my visor up and I was looking to the side for Casey to arrive, but the marshal in front of me was walking to the side and I was thinking: ‘Where is he going?' So I assumed something had happened to Casey on the warm-up lap. In the first few laps I had to be careful because you have to warm up the tires here, especially on the right hand side. But once that was done, we maintained a good pace and kept focused. In the last laps, the wind was strong and it would have been easy to make a mistake, but I was able to control the gap to Valentino and take this win. I was thinking back to Laguna Seca where Valentino closed the gap a lot, and I also knew that Jorge was catching Valentino too, so I just kept pushing. I'm very happy for the team because we struggled quite a lot in practice here, and yet we were able to win in front of all the Spanish fans. I'd like to thank the fans too. To get third in the championship is not what I was expecting but it's a nice surprise, even though Casey wasn't in the race. This season has not been easy and tomorrow's testing will be important so that we can start 2010 in the best possible shape. This gives us a good start towards that."

American teammates Ben Spies and fellow Texan Colin Edwards had a great afternoon as Spies's pass on Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso helped Edwards - who was fourth today - take fifth in the championship by a single point. Spies' Yamaha MotoGP debut was impressive as the new World Superbike Champion raced to seventh. Spies ended the first lap in 10th, stayed there for the first four laps, then dropped back to as far back as 12th before starting his march forward that would take him to the back of Dovizioso's Honda on the 21st lap. On the 24th lap, Spies took the spot from the Italian and held it for the rest of the 30-lap race.

Nicky Hayden ended his debut season with Ducati on a high as he finished fifth, two seconds behind Edwards and just ahead of San Carlo Honda's Toni Elias. Spies was seventh, just ahead of Dovizioso. Ninth went to Pramac Ducati's Mika Kallio with San Carlo Honda's Alex de Angelis completing the top 10.

MotoGP Final

1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)

2. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)

3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)

4. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)

5. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)

6. Toni Elias (Honda)

7. Ben Spies (Yamaha)

8. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)

9. Mika Kallio (Ducati)

10. Alex de Angelis (Honda)