Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa took his first MotoGP victory in nine races when he crossed the line at Sepang today, dominating the second half of the Malaysia clash as team-mate Marc Marquez extended his championship advantage to 43 points and put one hand on the title
After participating in an early, five-bike dice for the lead, the Repsol Honda man passed auld rival Jorge Lorenzo on the brakes into the last corner on lap five and then set about showing everyone a clean rear soft-option Bridgestone.
But the scrap for second was a long way from over. Yamaha's Lorenzo and rookie Marquez traded places and paint ten times in one of the best fights of the year before the world champion-elect put a move on his compatriot with 12 laps remaining and set off after his Repsol Honda stablemate.
Pedrosa, however, was long gone and crossed the line with a near-three second advantage over Marquez. But the youngster now only needs seven points more than Lorenzo to bag the world title at his first time of asking and could quite happily seal it at Phillip Island next weekend.
After getting involved early on, Valentino Rossi slipped back to a lonely fourth place, circulating three seconds behind his team-mate but with an 11-second cushion over the scrap for fifth was was eventually won by Alvaro Bautista.
The Spaniard had been on the rear wheel of Rossi for the opening half a dozen laps but fell back into the clutches of Cal Crutchlow, who got an appalling start from the front row and was passed by rookie team-mate Bradley Smith into turn one.
He recovered and settled into a battle with the Gresini Honda man and looked like he could seal fifth place when he passed Bautista as he ran wide with four laps to go. But Bautista was having none of it and re-took the place on the penultimate lap on the brakes into the last corner. Crutchlow didn't have an answer.
Smith, meawhile, was battled back to seventh and got involved in an early dice with Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso before putting the hammer down and opening a 14-second lead over the Italian to finish in eighth.
Aleix Espargaro was easily the fastest CRT rider home, crossing the line in ninth after Nicky Hayden's works Desmosedici blew an engine. Yonny Hernandez rounded out the top ten.
Michael Laverty was one of three riders to be handed a ride-through penalty for a jump start, which he duly took before crashing out of the race.
