Pedrosa turns the screws at Laguna Seca

In Californian sunshine, Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa has taken a dominant win at the Red Bull US Grand Prix, ahead of Yamaha teammates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo.

Australians Casey Stoner (Ducati) and Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) were fourth and eighth respectively.

The ailing Stoner revealed in a pre-race interview on ONE that he may have the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes glandular fever. He will be having further tests in California before he heads back to Europe.

Following a string of crashes and injury problems Pedrosa was finally back to his very best, lapping at a pace which none of his opponents could match. At one stage he had built up a significant gap at the front and, although Rossi chased him down on the final lap, there were no mishaps this time.

"This is a fantastic win for us and it's a great feeling after such a long time without a victory," said Pedrosa.  "The start to the season has been really difficult and actually it's been tough since Sachsenring last year because I've had a lot of injuries and I haven't been able to ride at 100 percent for a long time, or train properly.

"But my team and Honda never gave up and I'd like to thank everyone who's been working really hard to help me get back to this position. I'd also like to thank the doctors who have treated me because there have been quite a few of them!

"I got a good start, I was able to get into a good rhythm straight away and my pace was a little better than in practice. Perhaps my only mistake here was to slow down too much on the last lap because I didn't realize how close Valentino was. Anyway, it was a great race, a great day and it's a great feeling.

"Now I just want to focus on each race and get the best results possible. There's a long way to go in the championship but there's also a big gap to the leaders so I'm just going to take it one race at a time."

Pedrosa still has some way to go if he is to challenge at the head of the standings however, as current leader Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner all picked up solid points.

Riding with an injured shoulder and foot, Lorenzo had a chance to overtake Rossi for second with four laps to go, but got his move wrong and had to settle for the final podium place.

Stoner ran with the frontrunners for most of the race and, although he tired in the final stages, he stayed within touching distance of Rossi and Lorenzo at the top of the standings.

But the 2007 world champion still labelled it "a weekend to forget".

"I can't be happy with fourth place even if it has limited the damage to my championship chances," said Stoner. "Today I didn't feel as bad at the end of the race as I have done in the last two, but I'm still not right.

"I found it really difficult to keep my concentration over the last few laps and I was in a bit of a daze by the end. My left arm was feeling really tired by the end because of the fact there are so many left-handers here and my left wrist still doesn't have the full range of movement after my operation in the winter.

"I'm really disappointed because without all of these problems we could have done so much better. I want to thank the team for giving me a great bike and also Doctor Claudio Macchiagodena and our physiotherapist Freddie (Dente) for all their help. Now we'll focus on trying to find out the root of the problem because racing in this condition is not much fun."

A good ride from Nicky Hayden at his favourite track saw him register his first top five result since joining Ducati, the American rider finishing just ahead of a similarly revitalised Toni Elías (Honda).

Colin Edwards (Yamaha), Vermeulen, Randy de Puniet (Honda) and Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing) completed the top 10.

"It was a difficult race and we didn't end up where we wanted to be," said Vermeulen. "I got quite a good start but then got boxed in on Turn One and lost a few positions. I was battling with Loris and Colin and got caught up with them and came out of it the worse, and ended up in about 14th place.

"We also struggled a bit with tyre performance today and didn't get the ultimate performance out of the bike. From about lap 15 and right to the end my times were quite quick and when everybody's tyre dropped down - including mine - it was a lot easier to ride the bike.

"We just didn't really have the performance with the new tyres and it's something that has affected us before this year and is certainly something we will have to look at. The plus is that I stayed upright all day today - which was good - and although we didn't have the best package out there we still managed to score some decent points and now we need to move forward in Germany."

There was disappointment for Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) who lost ground in the championship when he crashed out for the second race in succession on lap seven. Indeed only 12 riders completed the race as the likes of Gabor Talmacsi (Honda), Loris Capirossi (Suzuki), Sete Gibernau (Ducati) and James Toseland (Yamaha) went home with DNFs to their names.

For full results and current standings, click here.

The next round will be held at Sachsenring, Germany on July 19.