Valentino Rossi won the San Marino MotoGP yesterday to move a step closer to the world title after his main rival, the Australian world champion Casey Stoner, crashed out of the race early on. Stoner, who had started on pole, was alone in the lead when he lost the front end of his Ducati and slid off into the gravel and retired. He had also crashed out of the Czech MotoGP in Brno two weeks ago.

Rossi capitalised, taking the lead from Honda's Dani Pedrosa and pulling away to equal Giacomo Agostini's record of 68 premier-class victories. The winner of seven world championships, he now leads by 75 points from Stoner.

"I saw Giacomo Agostini before the race and he was laughing," Rossi said. "So I said to him I would try to win today. He helped me to win. Stoner was going very fast but I had a good feeling with my bike, then I saw him slipping."

Jorge Lorenzo, Rossi's Yamaha team-mate, finished second, just over three seconds behind the Italian, and Toni Elías was third on a Ducati. A third Spaniard, Pedrosa, finished fourth to close the gap between himself and Stoner to two points.