Casey Stoner pipped Ben Spies to the line to take a dramatic victory at the final round of the MotoGP season in Valencia.
The world champion looked to be cruising to another routine win when he led away from pole position and built a 10-second advantage.
But Yahama rider Spies came storming back as rain began to fall in the closing stages, passing the Repsol Honda man at the front with three laps remaining.
The American looked set to take his second success of the year but ran wide in the final corner, allowing Stoner to nip back past and take the victory by just 0.015 seconds.
Stoner's team-mate Andrea Dovizioso came home next to secure third place in the championship standings behind Jorge Lorenzo, who was ruled out of the race through injury.
British rider Cal Crutchlow claimed the best result of his MotoGP career as he brought his Tech 3 Yamaha home in fourth position.
Debutants
Dani Pedrosa was fifth on the third Repsol Honda, with debutants Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Josh Hayes following him home.
Italian veteran Loris Capirossi was ninth in his final race before retirement.
But Ducati's season ended in disastrous style as both Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden were caught up in a pile-up at the first corner.
Alvaro Bautista lost control under braking and slid into Rossi and Hayden, with Randy de Puniet also being taken out in an incident that thankfully saw all riders escape serious injury.
Earlier on Sunday, riders from all three world championship categories - MotoGP, Moto2 and 125cc - completed a lap in honour of Marco Simoncelli, who died in a crash at the last round in Malaysia.
The Gresini Racing team, who Simoncelli rode for up until his death, then took an emotional victory in the Moto2 race through Michele Pirro.
