Pedrosa the clear victor at Indianapolis

Honda's Dani Pedrosa narrowed the gap on championship leader Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) to 68pts with seven rounds of the 2010 season remaining by winning the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix on Sunday.

It was the Repsol Honda rider's third win of the campaign, the first time he has achieved three wins in a season in the premier class. Home rider and pole man Ben Spies (Yamaha) achieved his best MotoGP result to date in second, ahead of Lorenzo.

Australia's Casey Stoner lost the front end of his Ducati on lap eight and was unable to continue.

Starting from the second row Pedrosa was on the pace early on and a fastest lap on lap two lifted him into second position, as he set his sights on Spies. On the end of the seventh lap the Spaniard overtook the rookie on the start/finish straight and never relinquished the lead, eventually crossing the line 3.575secs clear of Spies, who's just been confirmed as Valentino Rossi's replacement in the Yamaha factory team for 2011.

"I'm really happy with this win and it was an especially tough one because of the heat today," said Pedrosa. "My rhythm was good today and even though Spies was strong in front I was able to close him down and make the pass.

"I'm really pleased with the performance of my bike because it was fast on the straights and also was working well in the corners. When I was out in front it was quite hard to stay focused and at the end of the race I was really tired -- but I'm very happy because last year I crashed when I could have won and now I have made up for it."

Lorenzo had started from second on the grid, but dropped to fifth at the start of the race. That failed to affect his concentration however and he battled his way past Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) and into third just before the midway point of the race, finishing just over three seconds off Spies as his phenomenal record of having placed in the top two in every race this season was finally broken.

A complicated weekend for Rossi ended with the reigning world champion placing fourth in the race, as he won the battle of the Italians with Dovizioso fifth. Nicky Hayden was sixth, having started from the front row for the first time in his Ducati career.

Rookies Marco Simoncelli (Honda) and Álvaro Bautista (Suzuki) impressed with seventh and eight places respectively, with Aleix Espargaró (Ducati) and Héctor Barberá (Ducati) completing the top 10. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki), Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) - on his return from injury - and Randy de Puniet (Honda) were the final three riders to finish the race.

Also suffering the disappointment of DNFs alongside Stoner were Marco Melandri (Honda), Colin Edwards (Yamaha) and Mika Kallio (Ducati).

"I am very disappointed -- it was a nothing crash but obviously it was enough to leave me out of the race," Stoner said. "I know a lot of people have had front end crashes, but apparently here at Indianapolis we have gone back to the situation we were in at the start of the season and we've struggled to find front end feel in the corners. It's a real shame because we had good pace and I think we could have been on the podium."

Lorenzo moves onto 251pts with Pedrosa now on 183 in second in the standings. Dovizioso is third on 126, with Stoner now 7pts behind in fourth. Rossi remains in fifth while Spies moves up to sixth.

Queenslander Anthony West (MZ) was 10th in the Moto2 race, won by Toni Elias (Moriwaki).

Click on the following link for full results and standings across all three world championship classes.

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