Valentino Rossi's dominance of his home race continued when he racked up his sixth win in six years at the Italian MotoGP on Sunday.

The seven-times world champion was slow off the startline on his Yamaha, but after hitting the front on the ninth lap gradually eased away from his rivals.

He won by three seconds from the Honda of Spain's Daniel Pedrosa with Brazil's Alex Barros third on a Ducati.

Rossi equalled the achievement of Australian Mick Doohan, who won the Italian Grand Prix six years running between 1993 and 1998 in the old 500cc class.

Championship leader Casey Stoner of Australia rode his Ducati to fourth place to stay top of the standings on 115 points, nine points ahead of second-placed Rossi.

"It was a very difficult race because I made a small mistake at the start," Rossi told reporters.

Pedrosa, whose runner-up finish consolidated third place in the title race on 82 points, was pleased with his performance.

"It was an important result and a good weekend for us," he said. "We still have to improve in the second half of races, but I hope to be able to do even better in Spain (at the Catalunya Grand Prix) next week."

Stoner, who had won three of the previous five MotoGPs, started on pole and pulled away to lead into the first corner, while Rossi dropped back from third on the grid to eighth.

The Italian had struggled to match Stoner's pace in Saturday's wet qualifying session, but with dry race conditions he steadily worked his way back up the field as Stoner and his Ducati teammate Loris Capirossi set the early pace.

Pedrosa who was quickest in the warm-up, was also pushing hard and dived inside Stoner on lap six to take the lead.

Rossi followed a lap later then tucked in behind the Spaniard as the pair eased away from the chasing pack.

With four laps to go, the leaders had forged a four-second advantage over Stoner in third. When Rossi surged for the finish, however, Pedrosa could not respond.

Stoner lost third to Barros under braking at the start of the penultimate lap

In the 250cc race, Spain's Alvaro Bautista claimed his first victory in the class by overhauling Aprilia team mate Alex De Angelis on the finishing straight to win by 0.087 seconds.

Spain also provided the winner in the 125cc class where Hector Faubel pipped Sergio Gadea on the line to take the lead in the title race.

Photograph: Getty Images | Text: Reuters