Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez has taken an American MotoGP win clean sweep after adding the Indianapolis laurels to his victories at Austin and Laguna Seca last time out.
The youngster also increased his lead in the championship stakes to 21 points over team-mate Dani Pedrosa with a majestic ride which saw him pass reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo on lap 13 and then promptly clear off to win by more than three seconds.
Lorenzo succumbed to Pedrosa's pressure with only two laps to go after it looked like the Honda man had run out of steam but the tiny Spaniard took advantage of a massive drop in grip experienced by the Yamaha man to bag second place on the podium.
By contrast, Valentino Rossi's YZR-M1 came back to him in the later stages after The Doctor was mired down in ninth and stuck in between the two Ducatis for the opening laps. He did start to make his way through the joined the back of the tussle for fourth place being played out by Alvaro Bautista and Britain's Cal Crutchlow.
The Monster Yamaha man got stuck behind team-mate Bradley Smith in fourth early on and had to wait for a passing opportunity but Bautista followed him through and the pair then diced for most of the race. With 14 laps to go, Crutchlow made a slight error and Bautista ran in and stood the Isle of Man resident up to go ahead so Crutchlow then waited again and passed back when his pitboard told him Rossi was coming.
The Italian then went under Bautista with two laps left and tried a move on Crutchlow but ran wide and the Yamaha man seized back the place as Bautista held a watching brief.
Rossi then stuck his nose underneath Crutchlow into the last left/right combination and made the pass. Bautista was out of position and he and Crutchlow touched fairings, allowing the Doctor to get the drive over the line for fourth but some 20 seconds behind Marquez.
Stefan Bradl had a lonely ride for seventh place while Smith, who was unable to take advantage of a lightning start, was gifted eighth place when Nicky Hayden barged past team-mate Andrea Dovizioso into the last corner and took the both off track, and the young Briton nicked the place by 0.011s from the American.
Aleix Espargaro was the leading CRT rider from Colin Edwards and his team-mate Claudio Corti. Michael Laverty finished in 18th place.
