Motorcycling: Rossi's engine failure puts dominant Stoner on brink of first title

Valentino Rossi's gamble in trying a new engine in his Fiat Yamaha failed in the San Marino MotoGP at Misano yesterday when the four-cylinder motor blew up on only the fifth lap.

Sixty points behind the championship leader Casey Stoner at the start, Rossi relied on the pneumatic-valve engine he tested recently at Brno. The 28-year-old qualified in second place, close behind Stoner and the Marlboro Ducati, and got away in fourth place at the start of the race.

Fans from his nearby hometown of Tavullia had trekked to the circuit hoping to see a Rossi revival, but in the early laps their hero was unable to close on Stoner.

Then Rossi suddenly shut the throttle, whipped in the clutch lever, and his attempt to regain the title he last held in 2005 was effectively over for the year. He coasted into the pits, but the shrug of his shoulders and the way he lifted his hands, palms up, into the air as he dismounted expressed his dejection.

Stoner cantered off to win his eighth race of the season and open up an 85-point lead over Rossi in second, the combination of his Bridgestone tyres and Ducati Desmosedici GP7 overwhelming his rivals.

"This is like a dream for us," said Ducati's managing director, Claudio Domenicali. "We have had so many difficulties in the past. It's still not done, but 85 points is a big lead."

Dani Pedrosa, Stoner's only other challenger for the title, was brought down on the first turn by Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet in an incident that also forced Pedrosa's Repsol Honda team-mate Nicky Hayden to take to the gravel. Stoner now has five more races in which to clinch his and Ducati's first world title.