Lorenzo claims stunning win at Motegi

Jorge Lorenzo emerged victorious from a thrilling Polini Grand Prix of Japan at Twin Ring Motegi, the second win of his MotoGP career and a result that retained his 100 percent podium record in the 2009 season.

The Yamaha rider took little time in taking the reigns of the race, having started from the front row and showed no fear when faced with the likes of Dani Pedrosa (Honda) and teammate Valentino Rossi in front of him.

However, despite a relatively comfortable advantage, Lorenzo was never quite able to say a definitive 'sayonara' to his rivals as the action heated up. He held on to cross the line with a gap of less than two seconds between him and Rossi.

Pedrosa finished third, followed by Casey Stoner (Ducati). Australia's second rider, Suuzki's Chris Vermeulen, was eighth.

"First of all I just want to thank my team, my mum, dad and whole family, my friends and all the team workers," said Lorenzo. "Also Yamaha, as it is their home race, it was a difficult race because I didn't really get a very good start, I think I even finished the first lap in third or fourth.

"After that I began to catch up the pace. I passed Valentino and opened up a little gap, about a second and a half, and he was following me very hard. I had to ride the best I can to get the victory."

Lorenzo moves up into first place in the overall classification, for the second time in his MotoGP career. The battle for second place in the race was MotoGP at its finest, as Pedrosa exchanged overtaking moves in the middle third of the 24 laps. Pedrosa took third from out of nowhere, having had a storming start from the fourth row of the grid.

Stoner was unable to break away as he had done in Qatar, finishing fourth and keeping up the pressure in the general standings.

"The race in general I am quite happy with, as I think I rode quite well," said Stoner. "The team did the best job they could this weekend, with the short time that we had, and everybody else is in the same situation.

"We were running lap times which would have made me capable of racing at the front if we hadn't lost so much time at the beginning of the race. On my warm-up lap we found we had a problem with my front brake which was causing a lot of chattering, and this was the case for the first six or seven laps so I had no confidence on the brakes.

"Today's result looks worse than it could have been. I think if things go a bit better in Jerez and I can stick it out more at the beginning of the race we can hopefully be up there for the fight."

Next weekend's third GP of the year sees Stoner return to the scene of his BMW M Award triumph in the Official MotoGP Test in southern Spain.

Andrea Dovizioso completed a fine day for Repsol Honda in fifth, ahead of Marco Melandri (Kawasaki), Loris Capirossi (Suzuki), Mika Kallio (Ducati), James Toseland (Yamaha) and Australia's second rider, Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen.

Vermeulen made a great start and was in a podium position in the early part of the race, but an electrical fault relating to gear shifting saw him drop back through the field as he struggled to come to grips with difficulties in selecting gear.

Vermeulen passed James Toseland for ninth on the final lap, but the gear-change issue meant he was unable to hold the position and missed out on the line by a little over a tenth-of-a-second.

"I'm really disappointed today, because I got a good start, the bike felt good and I thought a decent result would be possible," said Vermeulen. "We used the hard rear tyre for the race and that was a bit scary on the first lap as I was worried about what it was going to do! I pushed as hard as I could and tried to hang on to the back of Valentino.

"From about the second or third lap I started to have a problem shifting gear heading into the turns and it made it difficult to stay consistent. I felt like I'd got it under control, but then the problem got worse from about lap six as I lost all shifting up and down without having to shut the throttle or use the clutch - so it was quite difficult!

"Other than that the bike worked really well and I felt like I could have challenged somewhere close to the front, but that's all ifs, buts and maybes and we now have to make sure what caused the problem today never happens again! If we can keep the speed we've had recently we will go to Jerez in a positive frame of mind and if we can iron out all the little things, then I'm sure we can start to challenge for podiums!"

For full results and standings, click here.