June 29th, 2008 by R.J.

As I said on Friday, Assen could turn out to be a huge shake-up in the points. That turned out to be the case on Saturday as Casey Stoner, aboard his Marlboro Ducati, achieved a commanding victory that ended with over an 11 second gap between him and the rest of the field.

The race was exciting from the very start with Valentino Rossi losing his rear on the very first lap of the race and careering into Randy de Puniet. Rossi got back on track, but only managed to pass Marco Melandri (13th) and Toni Elias (12th) to finish in 11th place. De Puniet was done for the day after the collision.

Dani Pedrosa finished in second place behind Stoner, regaining the points lead from Valentino Rossi. Pedrosa now leads the championship with 171 points compared to Rossi’s 167. Stoner, who has been inching closer to the top for the past 3 races, is not far behind with 142.

Repsol’s Nicky Hayden had managed to hold on to a 3rd place podium spot until the very last corner of the very last lap where his bike inexplicably shut down. He managed to coast the bike across the finish line, but not before being passed by his compatriot Colin Edwards on his Tech-3 Yamaha.

Here’s the official results:

1 - Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro Team - 42:12.337
2 - Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda - 42:23.647
3 - Colin Edwards - Yamaha Tech3 - 42:29.462
4 - Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda - 42:32.814
5 - Andrea Dovizioso - JIR Honda Scot - 42:39.683
6 - Jorge Lorenzo - Fiat Yamaha - 42:40.945
7 - Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP - 42:44.667
8 - Shinya Nakano - Honda San Carlo - 42:47.229
9 - James Toseland - Yamaha Tech3 - 42:50.903
10 - Sylvain Guintoli  - Alice Ducati - 42:51.154
11 - Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha - 42:58.362
12 - Toni Elias - Alice Ducati - 43:00.550
13 - Marco Melandri - Ducati Marlboro Team - 43:11.931
DNF - Randy De Puniet - Honda LCR
DNF - Alex De Angelis - Honda San Carlo
DNF - Anthony West - Team Kawasaki