Dani Pedrosa won the final race of the FIM MotoGP World Championship season to claim third in the final standings ahead of Casey Stoner.

World champion Valentino Rossi was second in the race at Valencia ahead of Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo but drama before the start took Stoner out of the race and ended his bid to take second in the final points table from Lorenzo.

Stoner was due to start the race from pole position but slid off his Ducati Marlboro machine on the warm-up lap and was unable to line up on the grid because his bike was too damaged and he could not make it back to the pit lane in time to use his back-up machine.

Repsol Honda's Pedrosa took the lead off the start line and never looked back as he steadily pulled clear of the battle for second between Lorenzo and Rossi.

Toni Elias was also briefly involved in the battle for second after a fine first corner saw him move past Lorenzo and Rossi but the Gresini Honda rider eventually faded to finish the race in sixth.

Lorenzo did well to avoid falling off his Yamaha on the fourth lap and Rossi was able to get by to claim second place, a position he was to hold until the flag.

Lorenzo closed the gap to below one second but Rossi always had the answer.

Colin Edwards finished fourth on the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha and that was good enough for him to finish the season in fifth position.

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro), Elias, Ben Spies (Yamaha), Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), Mikka Kallio (Pramac Ducati) and Alex De Angelis (Gresini Honda) completed the top 10.

Spies was having his first ride in a MotoGP as a wild card rider for the Tech 3 team he will race for next season after winning the FIM Superbike World Championship for Yamaha this season.

His move past Dovizioso in the closing stages meant the Honda rider lost out on fifth in the series standings to Edwards who will be Spies' team-mate full time next season.

Spies' fine debut was in stark contrast to British rider James Toseland who he will replace at Tech 3 next season.

Toseland was only 12th before returning to World Superbikes, where he is twice former champion, where he will take the place vacated by Spies for 2010.

MotoGP race result: 1 Dani Pedrosa (Spa) Honda 46mins 47.553secs, 2 Valentino Rossi (Ita) Yamaha 46:50.183, 3 Jorge Lorenzo (Spa) Yamaha 46:50.466, 4 Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha 47:20.068, 5 Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati 47:22.138, 6 Toni Elias (Spa) Honda 47:22.441, 7 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 47:25.259, 8 Andrea Dovizioso (Ita) Honda 47:25.917, 9 Mika Kallio (Fin) Ducati 47:30.044, 10 Alex De Angelis (Smr) Honda 47:31.242, 11 Randy De Puniet (Fra) Honda 47:33.571, 12 James Toseland (Gbr) Yamaha 47:37.779, 13 Aleix Espargaro (Spa) Ducati 47:44.721, 14 Loris Capirossi (Ita) Suzuki 47:54.430, 15 Chris Vermeulen (Aus) Suzuki 47:59.254

Riders' championship standings: 1 Valentino Rossi (Ita) Yamaha 306.0pts, 2 Jorge Lorenzo (Spa) Yamaha 261.0, 3 Dani Pedrosa (Spa) Honda 234.0, 4 Casey Stoner (Aus) Ducati 220.0, 5 Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha 161.0, 6 Andrea Dovizioso (Ita) Honda 160.0, 7 Toni Elias (Spa) Honda 115.0, 8 Alex De Angelis (Smr) Honda 111.0, 9 Loris Capirossi (Ita) Suzuki 110.0, 10 Marco Melandri (Ita) Kawasaki 108.0

Manufacturers' championship standings: 1 Yamaha 386.0pts, 2 Honda 297.0, 3 Ducati 272.0, 4 Suzuki 133.0, 5 Kawasaki 108.0

250cc race result: 1 Hector Barbera (Spa) Aprilia 44mins 10.601secs, 2 Alvaro Bautista (Spa) Aprilia 44:14.264, 3 Raffaele De Rosa (Ita) Honda 44:16.266, 4 Thomas Luthi (Swi) Aprilia 44:16.281, 5 Ratthapark Wilairot (Tha) Honda 44:24.202, 6 Karel Abraham (Cze) Aprilia 44:24.298, 7 Hiroshi Aoyama (Jpn) Honda 44:38.039, 8 Alex Baldolini (Ita) Aprilia 44:45.698, 9 Roberto Locatelli (Ita) Gilera 44:46.467, 10 Shoya Tomizawa (Jpn) Honda 44:50.777, 11 Shuhei Aoyama (Jpn) Honda 44:59.696, 12 Lukas Pesek (Cze) Aprilia 45:03.733, 13 Balazs Nemeth (Hun) Aprilia 45:16.615, 14 Mike Di Meglio (Fra) Aprilia 45:29.293, 15 Valentin Debise (Fra) Honda 45:29.477

Riders' championship standings: 1 Hiroshi Aoyama (Jpn) Honda 261.0pts, 2 Hector Barbera (Spa) Aprilia 239.0, 3 Marco Simoncelli (Ita) Aprilia 231.0, 4 Alvaro Bautista (Spa) Aprilia 218.0, 5 Mattia Pasini (Ita) Aprilia 128.0, 6 Raffaele De Rosa (Ita) Honda 122.0, 7 Thomas Luthi (Swi) Aprilia 120.0, 8 Mike Di Meglio (Fra) Aprilia 107.0, 9 Hector Faubel (Spa) Honda 105.0, 10 Alex Debon (Spa) Aprilia 101.0

Manufacturers' championship standings: 1 Aprilia 339.0pts, 2 Honda 287.0, 3 Gilera 245.0, 4 Yamaha 2.0

125cc race result: 1 Julian Simon (Spa) Aprilia 41mins 17.553secs, 2 Bradley Smith (Gbr) Aprilia 41:17.773, 3 Pol Espargaro (Spa) Derbi 41:29.676, 4 Simone Corsi (Ita) Aprilia 41:35.130, 5 Marcel Schrotter (Ger) Honda 41:35.470, 6 Joan Olive (Spa) Derbi 41:35.887, 7 Efren Vazquez (Spa) Derbi 41:36.055, 8 Sandro Cortese (Ger) Derbi 41:36.106, 9 Randy Krummenacher (Swi) Aprilia 41:36.284, 10 Nicolas Terol (Spa) Aprilia 41:38.833, 11 Dominique Aegerter (Swi) Derbi 41:41.188, 12 Lorenzo Zanetti (Ita) Aprilia 41:51.922, 13 Luis Salom (Spa) Aprilia 41:55.503, 14 Takaaki Nakagami (Jpn) Aprilia 41:55.643, 15 Johann Zarco (Fra) Aprilia 41:57.596

Riders' championship standings: 1 Julian Simon (Spa) Aprilia 289.0pts, 2 Bradley Smith (Gbr) Aprilia 223.5, 3 Nicolas Terol (Spa) Aprilia 179.5, 4 Pol Espargaro (Spa) Derbi 174.5, 5 Sergio Gadea (Spa) Aprilia 141.0, 6 Sandro Cortese (Ger) Derbi 130.0, 7 Andrea Iannone (Fra) Aprilia 125.5, 8 Marc Marquez (Spa) KTM 94.0, 9 Joan Olive (Spa) Derbi 91.0, 10 Stefan Bradl (Ger) Aprilia 85.0pts

Manufacturers' championship standings: 1 Aprilia 373.5pts, 2 Derbi 216.0, 3 KTM 96.0, 4 Honda 25.0, 5 Loncin 17.0pts