In 2007 Casey Stoner proved himself a threat to win the MotoGP World Championship by scoring his first MotoGP victory at Losail International Circuit in Qatar. 10 wins later, Stoner became the second youngest MotoGP World Champion in the sport’s history (only Freddy Spencer in 1983 was younger) as well as only the fifth rider to win more than eight MotoGP wins in a single season (joining the elite fraternity of Mick Doohan, Giacomo Agostini, Valentino Rossi and Mike “The Bike” Hailwood). On Sunday night, March 9, 2008 and with a multi-million dollar lighting system beating down upon it, the Losail International Circuit hosted the season opening Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar. And once again, it was Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner riding to victory. The win didn’t come easy for the 22 year-old Australian, though, as MotoGP rookie pole sitter Jorge Lorenzo of the Fiat Yamaha outfit rode a tremendous race, shadowing Stoner throughout the early stages. However, it was Stoner prevailing at the finish, 5.323 seconds ahead of Lorenzo. Despite missing out on a substantial amount of seat time in pre-season testing due to injury, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and his RC212V placed third, 5.2 seconds in arrears of Lorenzo. Pedrosa fought valiantly in Qatar, coming from a bad start to work his way up towards the front to pass Valentino Rossi in the twilight stage of the race to earn the final place on the podium. Interestingly, Rossi was relegated to fifth after he was nipped at the finish line by Andrea Dovizioso of the JiR Scot Honda team. A mere .7 behind Rossi at the finish was 2007 World Superbike Champion James Toseland turned heads nonetheless as he only came up .7 of a second short of also getting Rossi. Toseland’s Tech 3 Yamaha teammate Colin Edwards finished seventh. Over 17 seconds later, new Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi raced beneath the checkered flag just before LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet. Rounding out the top 10 was Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden. Marco Melandri was a disappointing eleventh is his Marlboro Ducati, while Monster Energy Kawasaki’s John Hopkins was 12th.