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After the initial problems, though, Simoncelli had a run of 7 consecutive races on the podium, from China to Czech Republic. The first four races of the season showed the early form of KTM and Mika Kallio, with two wins and two other third places, with strong showings by Marco Simoncelli, Alvaro Bautista and Mattia Pasini, who won the season opener in Qatar, his first race in the class. The Australian then won his home race and in Valencia, while Rossi won in Malaysia. Two weeks later, in Japan, Rossi clinched his sixth premier class title with three races to go, by winning the race ahead of Stoner. As Rossi began to pull a gap, heavy winds began to blow and the race was ended early with Rossi leading.
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The race at Indianapolis was a particularly difficult due to track conditions: the arrival of Hurricane Ike over Indiana meant cold temperatures, heavy winds and rain for the whole race duration the race was a battle between Rossi and former World Champion Nicky Hayden, who eventually took his first podium of the season. In the next two races, Czech Republic and San Marino, Stoner fell off while leading from Rossi, who then won both times. He re-mounted, but finished in second place while Rossi caught the first of five consecutive wins. However, Rossi passed Stoner in the middle on the first lap, and Stoner could never make a decisive pass, and he stayed behind until the 24th lap, where he fell at the last corner. The Australian took pole position and started the race in first position. Before the race Stoner trailed Rossi on the standings by only 20 points. The United States race at Laguna Seca was the biggest turning point of the season. Stoner won the three consecutive races in Britain, the Netherlands and Germany, also obtaining pole position and the fastest lap in all three. In China Rossi took his first win of the season and the first of three consecutive first places, after a weekend dominated by rain and cold temperatures he then won in France and in front of his home crowd in Italy. At the Portugal GP, Lorenzo started on pole and won his first MotoGP race, ahead of Pedrosa and Rossi. In Spain Pedrosa won his first race of the year, ahead of Rossi and Lorenzo, while Stoner struggled with technical problems on his bike and finished 11th after twice going out on the gravel. The race was won by Ducati's Casey Stoner ahead of rookie Jorge Lorenzo, who started on pole in his maiden race in the premier class, and Dani Pedrosa. The MotoGP class opened with the historic Qatar Grand Prix, the first night race held in the World Championship history.