Australia’s Casey Stoner won the Qatar Grand Prix, the opening race of the 2011 MotoGP season, yesterday, ahead of Spaniards Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.

Stoner learnt from his mistake of last year, when he started from pole only to crash on lap six, by letting Honda team-mate Pedrosa move ahead early on and even permitted reigning world champion Lorenzo to lead briefly after the Yamaha rider overtook both Hondas.

Stoner moved ahead on the second lap followed by Pedrosa, who went on to lead from laps seven to 12 before before being reeled in during a battle between the Spaniards and the Australian.

Stoner finished 3.440sec ahead of Lorenzo to give Honda their first win in the opening round of the season in eight years.

The Australian, who had already won in Qatar in 2008 and 2009, thereby claimed the 31st victory of his career.

Reigning Moto2 champion Toni Elias of Spain, who has stepped up to MotoGP this season, had a nightmare race, from his start at the back of the grid to his fall at the end of the race.

Meanwhile, Suzuki announced yesterday they have replaced injured Spaniard Alvaro Bautista with American John Hopkins for the second race of the MotoGP season in Jerez.

Bautista, Suzuki’s number one driver, fractured his leg in a crash on Friday during a free practice session in Doha. He underwent surgery on Saturday but will be sidelined at least until the Portuguese Grand Prix at the end of April.

Hopkins, 27, spent seven seasons in MotoGP, one at Yamaha (2002), five at Suzuki (2003-2007) and one at Kawasaki (2008).

He finished fourth in the 2007 world championship and has stepped onto the podium four times, though never as race winner.

The second race of the 18-leg world championship will be held in Jerez, Spain on April 3.

Qatar GP top 10
1. Casey Stoner (Honda) 42min 38.569sec, 2. Jorge Lorenzo (Ya-maha) at 3.440sec, 3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 5.051, 4. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 5.942, 5. Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 7.358, 6. Ben Spies (Ya-maha) 10.468, 7. Valentino Rossi (Ducati) 16.431, 8. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 26.293, 9. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 27.416, 10. Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 28.920.

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