Victory for dominant Pedrosa at Mugello

Dani Pedrosa (Honda) rode a start-to-finish victory in the Italian MotoGP race at Mugello on Sunday, ahead of title leader Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) and Italian team-mate Andrea Dovizioso - who gave the home crowd a podium to cheer on with Valentino Rossi missing.

Pedrosa, who had only converted three of his previous 14 premier class pole positions into wins prior to this race, never looked like relinquishing the lead he held from turn one of the opening lap and crossed the finish line 4.014secs clear of Lorenzo.

Australia's Casey Stoner (Ducati) took fourth as he beat Honda pair Marco Melandri and Randy de Puniet in a last-lap dash.

"It's an unbelievable feeling to win again and I'm so happy for myself and the Repsol Honda team," said Pedrosa. "We've been working really hard and we had some problems through the winter and in the first races, so I'm really delighted with this victory, especially after leading at Jerez for so long but not quite making it. It looks like we are back near where we need to be and the team deserves the victory.

"The next race is at Silverstone which is a legendary track so I hope that we can match this kind of performance there -- and also that this part of England has better weather. And I also want to thank the fans here for pushing for Valentino because he's having a hard time and everyone in the paddock wishes him well."

Just past the halfway point of the race Pedrosa's lead had stretched to 7.309secs and his fluid rhythm was maintained as he kept edging away. Lorenzo and Dovizioso were more closely matched, and much further back positions four to six remained open as Melandri, De Puniet and Stoner exchanged blows, with Ben Spies (Yamaha) not out of the chase either.

The final lap delivered a great display in the fight for fourth as Stoner went through on both Melandri (fifth) and De Puniet (sixth) to finish ahead of the pair, while up front Pedrosa crossed the line first with Lorenzo and Dovizioso following.

Spies finished seventh in his first race at the circuit, with another rookie impressing in the shape of Aleix Espargaró (Ducati) who took eighth.

Lorenzo now has 90pts at the top of the championship, with Pedrosa second on 65. The absent Rossi is third on 61, with Dovizioso's podium taking him to 58 in fourth.

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