Lorenzo skittles field in Barcelona

Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo has extended his advantage at the top of the MotoGP standings with his fifth win of the campaign at the Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya.

Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Australia's Casey Stoner (Ducati) completed the podium for the second race in succession, with both riders having to recover from off-track excursions after out-braking themselves at turn one.

"Without a small mistake of my own I think we could have been pushing for the lead for most of the race," Stoner said.

"We had the pace to do that and the bike felt quite good, but unfortunately I just got the draft of both of them going into that turn, and the slipstream coming off the back of them buffered me a bit and brought the rear of the bike up.

"There was no way I was going to stop for that corner. So I thought it was better to play it safe and not hit anyone and finish the race.

"I'm a little bit disappointed because I thought I could at least have been second. I thought I had the pace to close down on the front two, but unfortunately I just couldn't overtake the people in front of me and that was our biggest battle today. We'll look forward to next week and try and solve these issues, but we're feeling a lot more confident with the bike."

Meanwhile, Lorenzo became the first Yamaha rider to win three successive premier class races from pole position since Eddie Lawson did so in 1986. The Spaniard is now 52pts clear at the top as he continued his phenomenal run of form in taking his second win on home soil this season.

"This is very special. After losing so closely last year I was happy but not completely so and today I can say I am completely happy, winning here at my home race," said Lorenzo.

"It was very difficult today because it was so hot and the front tyre was sliding a lot. I thought I was going to have a big battle with Dovizioso because he was pushing very hard but then he crashed and I was alone; it was lucky for me because then I was able to take it more gently to the finish.

"I think I rode a clever race today. I am so grateful to my team and to everyone at Yamaha and Bridgestone because they are working so hard to make our bike competitive at every track. I also want to say thank you to all the fans that came to watch today, it is a great feeling for me to win here in front of them all."

Pedrosa made one of his rapid starts and led into turn one 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 (Ducati) had a run-off as he pushed hard to move up the order and Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) started a fight for the lead with Lorenzo 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 Stoner ran off track shortly after and dropped to fifth as Randy de Puniet (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 (Honda) 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 5.5secs 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 4.754secs clear, with Pedrosa winning the scrap for second by just 0.2secs 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, and in fifth with a superb ride was rookie Álvaro Bautista as he produced a magnificent effort on his Suzuki GSV-R.

Ben Spies (Yamaha) continued his progress with sixth place on another new circuit, and Loris Capirossi (Suzuki), Nicky Hayden (Ducati), Marco Melandri (Honda) - on his return from a dislocated shoulder - and Héctor Barberá (Ducati) all finished inside the top 10, with Dovizioso eventually finishing 14th.

Lorenzo now has 165pts 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 4-6.

Anthony West (MZ) made giant inroads with a fine ninth place in the Moto2 race, won by Japan's Yuki Takahashi (Tech3).

Click on the following link for full results and standings.