The World Champion got his title defence off to a winning start in the 2010 season-opener.Valentino Rossi’s bid to win his eighth premier class title got off to the best possible start on Sunday, when the Italian took victory at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar. Rossi had to battle hard to establish himself in the lead before eventually winning by a gap of just over a second.
Aided by a crash from rival Casey Stoner early in the race, Rossi still had to deal with the forceful challenge of Andrea Dovizioso whom he eventually held off to win under the floodlights for the first time, having last won at Losail in 2006 in the daytime. It was also a Fiat Yamaha one-two with team-mate Jorge Lorenzo placing second."I got a fantastic start but I wasn't quite fast enough and was suffering on the straight. I lost some time passing Pedrosa and by then Stoner was quite far ahead of me, I thought then that it was going to be hard to catch him!” explained Rossi. “Then he made a mistake and crashed, which was bad luck for him but crucial for us.”
