Pedrosa faultless in Germany

Dani Pedrosa (Honda) firmed his grip on second in the world championship standings with victory at Sachsenring in the German Grand Prix on Sunday, his second win of the season, as Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) took second place and Casey Stoner (Ducati) third ahead of a courageous Valentino Rossi in his first race back after injury.

"This victory is even better than the one in Italy because at Mugello I just went away in front and there was no battle with anybody, but here I was battling with Lorenzo in the first and second race, and finally beat him, so this is even more important," said Pedrosa.

"I'm very happy because we are back winning races and it's a great feeling. It wasn't easy today because when the race is stopped and restarted like that, sometimes you don't have the same feeling on the machine in the second part.

"Also you get nervous again on the grid and it's possible you won't have the same pace after the restart. But it went very well for us in both races."

The original race was red flagged on lap nine when a crash for Randy de Puniet (Honda) at turn four brought down both Álvaro Bautista (Suzuki) and Aleix Espargaró (Ducati), neither of whom could avoid the Frenchman's bike which burst into flames.

The top five order at that stage was Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) and Rossi, and the trio involved in the accident were unable to line-up for the shortened 21-lap new race after failing to return to pit lane with their bikes within five minutes of the red flag. De Puniet was physically not able, having sustained fractures in his left tibia and fibula in the incident.

After a 25-minute interval the new shortened version began and, as he had done in the original race, Pedrosa got his nose in front on the first lap, but Lorenzo quickly assumed the race lead - that would change again however.

The top order was much the same as it had been before the red flag, with Lorenzo holding off Pedrosa, Stoner in third, and Rossi and Dovizioso battling for fourth. The reigning world champion was in front of his Italian compatriot before too long, and the Honda man was caught by the chasing pack shortly after.

The battle between Lorenzo and Pedrosa was developing into a thriller with the two Spaniards swapping the lead as they constantly looked for ways through on one another, and Pedrosa was at his best as he set a new circuit lap record on lap 10 and then again on 12, assuming the race lead and breaking his own record from the previous year and consistently riding in the low 1:22sa.

There was a good scrap going on for fifth between Marco Simoncelli (Honda), Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden (Ducati), and the latter two went through on the rookie when he had a wobble but held onto his bike well.

Rossi was defying his precarious physical condition to engage in a great contest with Stoner for third, the two side by side with only a few laps to go and taking their duel to the bitter end.

Pedrosa crossed the line in first position, 3.355secs clear of championship leader Lorenzo thanks to a faultless ride, and Stoner managed to edge Rossi for third with a final corner move that handed the Italian fourth on his return from injury, a highly impressive result.

"I saw Valentino coming and he had a much higher pace than me and I thought he would just take off if he got past. So I tried to do everything I could to stay with him and when I got an opportunity to overtake him it came down to the last two laps," explained Stoner. "We had a few nice passes and I just had to go for it in the last corner, and it worked out. I'm pretty happy with the result, and we managed to pick up points when we needed to."

Dovizioso finished fifth, with Simoncelli achieving his best premier class result to date in sixth. American duo Hayden and Ben Spies (Yamaha) were seventh and eighth respectively, with Héctor Barberá (Ducati) and Marco Melandri (Honda) completing the top 10.

The final two riders to complete the race in 11th and 12th were Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and stand-in rider Alex de Angelis (Honda). Colin Edwards (Yamaha) had crashed out on lap seven of the original race.

Lorenzo now has 185pts at the top of the standings, with Pedrosa second on 138 and Dovizioso third on 102. Stoner moves into fourth, 19 points off Dovizioso.

In the Moto2 race, Nieto took fourth, a fantastic ride from stand-in rider Damian Cudlin for the Tenerife 40 Pons team handed the Australian seventh, six spots ahead of countryman Anthony West (MZ). The race was won by Toni Elias from Andrea Iannone and Roberto Rolfo.

In the Red Bull Rookies, Joshua Hook was the best performing Aussie with 6-8 results, ahead of Arthur Sissis (11-9).

Click on the following link for full results and standings.