Rossi praises Stoner

Yamaha rider Rossi, 28, finished second behind Stoner, but after the pair passed each other on numerous occasions during the race, the five-time world champion admitted that his opponent's Ducati just had too much straightline speed for him to deal with.

Rossi said: "I wanted to push Casey and try to take the fight to him more, but in fact he was perfect today. He didn't make a single mistake as far as I could see and he rode very well; he deserved to win so congratulations to him.

"I could see that he was faster on the straight and so I knew that if I got in front I was going to need to make a gap from him, but in fact he was too strong! In the last few laps we were getting faster and faster and I thought I still had a chance, but then he kept on going and my tyre started to slide a little bit so I wasn't able to stay with him to the finish.

Five-time world champion Rossi was nevertheless happy to take 20 points from the first race of the season, especially as it meant he out-scored both Repsol Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa.

He does think though that Yamaha still need to extract a few more horsepower from their new 800cc engine before the next race in Jerez in two weeks time.

He added: "Of course it's not perfect but my team have worked very hard and it's much better to have 20 points like this than two like last year! Now we need to find a little bit more power, but Yamaha is working very hard and I am confident that we will continue to improve."

Rossi's American team-mate Colin Edwards finished sixth.