The World Championship leader extended his advantage at the top of the standings further with his fifth win of the campaign at the Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya. Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner finished second and third for the second race in succession.

Jorge Lorenzo became the first Yamaha rider to win three successive premier class races from pole position since Eddie Lawson did so in 1986 when he took his fifth win of the 2010 campaign at the Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya on Sunday. The Spanish rider is now 52 points clear at the top as he continued his phenomenal run of form in taking his second win on home soil this season.

Dani Pedrosa (Respol Honda) made one of his rapid starts and led into Turn 1 as he shot through from row two, but then ran wide coming out and had dropped down to ninth by the end of lap one as he lost the advantage. It was an error Pedrosa managed to recover in the early laps however and before too long he was up to third.

Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Racing) had a run-off as he pushed hard to move up the order and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) started a fight for the lead with Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) on lap three when he overtook to move into first, but it was a lead Lorenzo regained on the next lap as the battle lines were drawn.


When chasing in third place Casey Stoner (Ducati Team) ran off track shortly after and dropped to fifth as Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) and Pedrosa came through, and Espargaró suffered disappointment in his home race when he crashed out on lap six.

Lap 14 proved to be an eventful one as first Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) crashed out when in sixth as he chased his best premier class finish to date. Then, in a decisive moment for the race, Dovizioso also went down as he pushed himself when chasing Lorenzo at the front, rejoining the race in 15th place shortly after.

With that, Lorenzo was clear by just over 5.5s with less than half the race to go, and Stoner and Pedrosa began duelling for second place with De Puniet further back in fourth. Lorenzo’s lead proved to be too much and he crossed the line 4.754s clear to take his fifth win of the season. Pedrosa won the scrap for second by just two-tenths of a second from Stoner, as the podium of the previous round at Assen was repeated.

Fourth place and his best result of the campaign so far went to De Puniet after yet another impressive ride on the satellite RC212V of the LCR Honda team, and in fifth with a superb ride was rookie Álvaro Bautista as he produced a magnificent effort on his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R.

Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) continued his progress with sixth place on another new circuit, and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team), Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) – on his return from a dislocated shoulder – and Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar) all finished inside the top ten, with Dovizioso eventually finishing 14th.

Lorenzo now has 165 points with Pedrosa on 113 in second. Dovizioso remains third and is on 91, with Hayden, De Puniet and Stoner all leapfrogging the absent Valentino Rossi to fill positions four to six.