Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo won his second MotoGP race in row when he crossed the line ahead of Dani Pedrosa in today's Catalunya encounter and extended his championship lead to 20 points over reigning champion Casey Stoner who could only muster a fourth place.
Lorenzo took the lead from Pedrosa with six laps left to run after the Spaniard looked to have a problem with his wheelie control which pushed him wide into the corner after the back straight, allowing Lorenzo to slip up the inside and then get his head down to pull a substantial gap.
Stoner, who along with Pedrosa chose the hard Bridgestone while all about him went with the soft option, was never in the hunt and scrapped for fourth place with Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow for a majority of the race until, as laps got down into single figures, he was able to gap the Briton and set off after Andrea Dovizioso.
The Repsol Honda man couldn't quite catch Dovizoso, however, and had to settle off the podium for the first time in more than a year while Crutchlow scored a fifth place but is leapfrogged in the championship table by team-mate Dovizioso.
San Carlo Honda's Alvaro Bautista assumed his now-customary sixth place after fending off several charges from Valentino Rossi. Although The Doctor was some way from the podium in terms of numbers, he finished the race only 17 seconds behind the leader, so the new setup he took away from the Mugello test has given him some direction with the GP12.
Rookie Stefan Bradl finished five seconds behind Rossi but in front of Nicky Hayden on the second Ducati while fellow American Ben Spies came back from a third-lap crash to take tenth place. The former World Superbike Champion passed Pedrosa for the lead into turn one, but ran wide and caught his rear wheel on the grass. He remounted and fought his way back through for a smattering of points.
Aleix Espargaro finished top of the CRT table with Michele Pirro and Randy De Puniet second and third. Colin Edwards cruised down pitlane to finish the lap while James Ellison finished one place out of the points in 16th.
