World champion Valentino Rossi won his tenth race of a remarkable season after bitter rival Sete Gibernau threw away victory in the Qatar Grand Prix at Losail.
Gauloises Yamaha rider Rossi celebrated his fifth consecutive MotoGP world title with a battling ride to claim maximum points after seeing off Marco Melandri's late challenge.
Melandri gambled on an all-or-nothing late move for the lead, running wide before finishing a distant second, but Movistar Honda team-mate Gibernau was left to reflect on what might have been.
The Spaniard led for most of the race but, under pressure from Melandri, he made yet another costly error, running wide and dropping to fifth place.
Gibernau has not won a race since Qatar last year, with a succession of mistakes and reliability problems ruining his season, and he was left shaking his head in despair after crossing the finishing line in fifth.
Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden took advantage of Gibernau's mistake to earn a podium finish with third place, while Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards was fourth. Carlos Checa brought his Marlboro Ducati home in sixth.
Checa's team-mate Loris Capirossi had started from pole position and streaked clear of the pack on lap one, as Rossi, Gibernau and Hayden fought for second place into turn one.
Capirossi could not live with his Yamaha and Honda rivals on the long straight though and dropped from first to fourth at the end of lap one.
Hayden zipped past to take third place but he soon lost out to Melandri after making a small mistake.
Capirossi's challenge was over on lap seven when, struggling with rapidly-wearing Bridgestone tyres, he ran wide and into the gravel. Just seconds later, Max Biaggi pulled into the pits to retire his Repsol Honda with electrical problems.
On lap eight Melandri fought his way past Rossi into second, making it a Movistar Honda one-two behind leader Gibernau, but two laps later Rossi hit back, drafting past his fellow Italian.
The positions were reversed again soon after, giving Melandri the chance to attack Gibernau. He briefly took the lead before running wide but a few corners later attempted a further similar move. Again Gibernau looked to hold on but he
ran out of grip and sailed straight on into the gravel.
That left Rossi and Melandri in a shoot-out for the win, with the world champion's overtaking move on the penultimate lap proving crucial in the end.
Problems for other riders further down the field gave Britain's two representatives points, with Camel Honda's Shane Byrne taking 13th, two clear of Blata-WCM rider James Ellison.
