Under partly-cloudy skies and cool temps (63 degrees) Valentino Rossi and Yamaha absolutely stole the USGP win today from Casey Stoner and Ducati.

Stoner and the blood red Ducati had led every single practice and qualifying session at Laguna and today's race seemed to be a foregone conclusion--Stoner would win it. The only question left, seemingly, was by how much.

Stoner led from the start but Rossi took the lead from him in the Corkscrew with a deft move. The crowd cheered and that set off a battle between the Italian and Australian that would last for the majority of the race.

Anyone who has raced knows how difficult it can be to pass a very good rider on a slower bike while on a short circuit no matter how fast your bike may be. This is essentially the tactic that Rossi used to defeat the undefeatable. He put the Yamaha in front of the Ducati, stayed right on the racing line and made Stoner over-ride the Ducati to get by him. Stoner did make it past Rossi several times but Rossi was able to scratch his way back into the lead and to start the fun again.

Stoner was pushing very hard in the run down the hill from the Corkscrew and into turn eleven lap after lap, at least twice his on-board camera showed the bike going light as he levered the bike off the ground in the apex of eleven.

Before the race, Stoner hadn't been headed all weekend and that was the problem as he didn't seem to have the gearing or acceleration or set up to run past a bike in front of him--he didn't need to, his bike was so fast he could out-power anything and anyone.

Stoner did make it past the Yamaha several times in the race and should have been able to jet away but couldn't, even with clear track--momentarily--in front of him.

Rossi ran off the track in the Corkscrew early in the race but refused to relinquish the lead. Rossi's passes were not the cleanest but he had little choice if he really wanted to win the race.

Clearly frustrated, Stoner was pushing hard to get around Rossi and make a break. He ran it hard into turn eleven with eight laps to go, went wide, went into the gravel, tried to stop and lost the front, crashing at low speed.

By the time Stoner had picked the Ducati up and re-joined the race Rossi had an eight-second lead. The race for the win was over.

American Nicky Hayden ran near the front on the opening laps but was overhauled by Andrea Dovizioso, he finished fifth. Jamie Hacking made a heroic run from nearly dead last to finish eleventh. Ben Spies redeemed himself with a late race charge, finishing eighth.

Stoner said after the race that he wasn't happy about two or three of the passes that Rossi made on him, that they were too close and dangerous. But as a former dirt tracker himself, Stoner knows that's part of the way a slower bike beats a faster bike on a short track.

Rossi stopped in the Corkscrew on the cool-off lap, handed his bike to two fans, got down and kissed the tarmac.

Buzz-kill struck instantly as SCRAMP officials nabbed the two spectators who jumped the fence and were holding Rossi's Yamaha, pulled their passes and threw them out of the circuit.

Rossi congratulated Stoner in the cool-off area after the race but got a lecture back on the rough passes. Rossi reportedly smiled and simply said "That's racing, Casey".