BBC Sportmotorsport

Race result after 27 laps:

1 D Pedrosa (Sp) Honda

2 V Rossi (It) Yamaha

3 J Lorenzo (Sp) Yamaha

4 N Hayden (US) Honda

5 L Capirossi (It) Suzuki

6 J Toseland (GB) Yamaha

7 J Hopkins (US) Kawasaki

8 A Dovizioso (It) Honda

By Julian Shea

606: DEBATE Your views on the big race

Send us your views, comment and opinions on the Jerez MotoGP - text us on 81111 or use 606. (Not all contributions can be used)

"Never thought i would see Stoner in the gravel twice in the one race, did well to keep going both times though" shanko3, via 606

Lap 27: As you'd expect up the front as the chequered flag is waved - Pedrosa, Rossi and Lorenzo.

Hayden holds on for fourth, and right at the death Capirossi barges past Toseland, almost forcing him wide, to snatch fifth place. Sixth place for the Englishman, with John Hopkins seventh, and Casey Stoner back in 11th place. The Ducati garages are unlikely to be the happiest of places tonight.

Lap 26: He's only gone and done it - somehow Toseland managed to get past Capirossi and Dovizioso into fifth place. Mightily impressive from the Yorkshireman who was on a respirator on hospital the other day because of his chest infection.

Lap 25: Toseland is almost racing alongside Capirossi but just misses out on sneaking past the country and western loving Suzuki rider for sixth spot.

"Rossi for victory!!!!!" Ninad13, via 606

I think it will take something pretty unexpected for that to happen Ninad, but then as Nicky Hayden can testify after Estoril 2006, Pedrosa is capable of producing the most unexpected moves at the most unexpected times.

Lap 22: Stoner's nightmare weekend continues - he tries to cut between Shinya Nakano and Chris Vermeuelen, fails to straighten out and heads off into the gravel. Again. Amazingly, despite going off and losing huge amounts of speed, he returns to the race still in 11th place.

Lap 20: Fourth place Hayden is just 0.02 seconds behind Lorenzo in third but then makes a costly error as he does a Colin Edwards, leaning over too far to his right but managing to right himself and keep on track (literally). That could have cost him his chance of third place though.

Lap 19: Gotcha! A momentary lapse of concentration by Vermeulen allows both Toseland and John Hopkins to pass him on the inside.

Lap 18: Toseland is almost within touching distance of Vermeulen but can't quite seem to find the necessary inch of space to launch a bid to pass him.

Lap 16: No change to the order up the front, the only alteration is that Pedrosa's gap on Rossi is now up to four seconds.

Lap 14: Toseland is going down to the gorgeous Devon village of Lympstone next weekend to train with the Royal Marines, apparently. Let's hope he's fully recovered from his chest infection by then to give a decent account of himself.

If he's got the same lurgy that I had last weekend, then I can't believe he's out of bed, let alone riding a bike. That already sounds pretty fit to me.

Lap 13: With things looking settled up the front, there's an interesting battle developing between Vermuelen, Toseland and John Hopkins for the places just off the podium.

Lap 12: Casey Stoner is up to 11th place now. Pedrosa's gap on Rossi is up to 3.3 seconds now. He's safely out of reach and hasn't been challenged so far, so - famous last words - you can only see mechanical failure or a crash coming between him and victory now.

Lap 10: The gap between the leader Pedrosa and Rossi is now up to 2.6 seconds.

Lap 8: Pedrosa is still unchallenged out front, over 2.4 seconds ahead of Rossi, with Lorenzo in third place doing his best to challenge his team-mate, but sailing a bit too close to the wind when his right leg comes off the pedal and has a waggle as he nearly loses it.

Casey Stoner has worked his way up from the back of the field to 11th place and is lapping at the same pace as Capirossi in fifth place. Still a long way for the world champion to go, but he's performing valiantly.

Randy de Puniet is back in the pits having crashed out on the first lap - no damage done, at least he's walking and talking about it, but he has no idea what happened.

Lap 5: From sixth position, Colin Edwards finds himself in the gravel - not sure how it happened, but he's struggling to get the bike upright so I think we can safely rule him out of contention for the day.

"Stoner finally shows us he is human with that mistake" shanko3, via 606

Lap 3: Ouch! Stoner misjudges a corner and skids off into the gravel to give his tyres a bit of a clean - no danger of the world champion being out of the race, but for the time being he is, metaphorically, as he ends up at the back of the field. Randy de Puniet is the one rider out of the race so far.

Lap 1: Great start for Lorezno, Stoner and the Hondas of Hayden and Pedrosa, but not a particularly good one for Toseland.

1300: And we're off!

1258: The warm-up lap begins - hot and sunny looking in southern Spain, which is likely to help the Bridgestone tyres, reckons BBC summariser Steve Parrish. 131,000 spectators have gathered to watch the big race, stats fans. A few more than at Qatar, certainly.

1248: "I cant wait till the tech3 team get the new set up,look how they have performed up to now with the old engine,stoner and the rest should be afraid,very afraid." gassman84, via 606

1245: "Come on Rossi... Show these young guns why you have 7 championships under your belt!" anonymous, via text

1215: Here we go again!

The season may have begun three weeks ago in the dark in the desert, but there's something about a daylight race in front of thousands of excitable Spaniards which makes this feel a bit more like the proper start of the season.

But before we get into discussing the day's events, here is a public service announcement.

MotoGP on the BBC is NOT coming to an end - ok???

The news that the BBC has regained coverage rights for Formula One has been interpreted by some 606 users as meaning the beginning of the end of the BBC's coverage of top-class motorcycling, and treated as a fact on some threads.

So just to knock this one on the head, I emailed BBC head of Sport Roger Mosey to get the official line from the man who would know these things better than anyone else.

And his answer - I quote - was "This is categorically not the case. The BBC intends to show both F1 and MotoGP and we're delighted to be the home of top live motosport."

So now you know. In the future, you can look forward to plenty more coverage of success for Bradley Smith - third place in today's 125cc race - and hopefully James Toseland too here on the BBC. So is everyone happy? Good - let pre-race debate begin.

Please get in touch with us on 606 or by texting 81111 to let us know your thoughts on all the action. May the best - and fastest - man win.