MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner secured his third successive victory after winning a rain-soaked German Grand Prix yesterday.

The Australian overcame sickness as well as the poor conditions to finish 3.708 seconds ahead of former champion Valentino Rossi of Italy, who regained the overall lead in the standings from Spaniard Dani Pedrosa who bowed out early in the race.

Australian Chris Vermeulen of Suzuki clinched third spot, 14.002 seconds behind Stoner's Ducati after a tight race to the line with San Marino's Alex de Angelis on a Honda.

"I've been feeling sick since yesterday morning," a groggy-looking Stoner told the BBC. "I was struggling with my concentration levels and it wasn't getting any better today.

"Those conditions were very, very hard. I was losing it and aquaplaning in a lot of places so I was lucky to come out of that one on the bike, let alone win the race."

Stoner started on pole position but was left trailing in the opening stages by Pedrosa.

Pedrosa appeared to make light work of the wet track to open up a gap of more than six seconds over the chasing pack before sliding off at the start of the sixth lap of the 30-lap race at the Sachsenring circuit.

Pedrosa, second in qualifying behind Stoner, lost control of his Honda and crashed heavily into the padding to injure a foot and hand.

Stoner capitalized to retake the lead and hold off five-time champion Rossi, who started from the third row on the grid after qualifying seventh, for the remaining 25 laps.

Jorge Lorenzo and Colin Edwards, both of Yamaha, as well as Marco Melandri also crashed in difficult conditions.

With eight races remaining, Yamaha's Rossi leads Pedrosa by 16 points with Stoner third, a further four points behind.

Melandri, meanwhile, is to part company with Ducati at least a year early, the struggling Italian rider's agent Alberto Vergani said on Saturday.

"The contract that bound us to Ducati also for 2009 has been annulled by mutual agreement and therefore without any penalties," Vergani was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

Melandri has won just 32 points since joining Stoner at Ducati on a two-year deal at the start of the season, leaving him a lowly 14th in the standings.

Italian media have speculated that Ducati may be about to replace 25-year-old Melandri with retired former rider Sete Gibernau after the Spaniard recently did tests for the team.

Vergani also said the former 250cc world champion may not even complete the season with his current team. "Melandri might remain on hold waiting for 2009," he said.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily July 14, 2008)