Motegi MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa chips away at Jorge Lorenzo with win

His fourth victory in the last five races carried Pedrosa to within 28 points of the Yamaha rider, although overturning that margin with just three races left will require an element of misfortune for Lorenzo.

Alvaro Bautista meanwhile claimed third after a fantastic late battle with Cal Crutchlow. The pair traded position several times and even touched before the contest was eventually decided in the Spaniard's favour when Crutchlow ran out of fuel on the final lap.

Their battle was a welcome late addition to a race in which the lead fight had promised much but ultimately failed to deliver.

In a pattern reminiscent of Brno, Lorenzo led early on but was never able to pull more than half a second clear of Pedrosa.

The Honda rider made his move 13 laps from the finish, and while Lorenzo initially stayed with him, the gap had stretched to over one second within two laps.

That effectively signalled the end of Lorenzo's victory challenge, Pedrosa easing away through a combination of his own pace and Lorenzo's lack of urgency given his championship advantage.

As the front duo pulled away, an early six-rider battle for third slowly separated, with Crutchlow easing away from the pack until Bautista reeled him in late on.

Casey Stoner was also involved at first, rising as high as fourth on lap one. His cause was aided by Ben Spies's exit at Turn 1 on only the second lap.

Stoner, struggling with injury, predictably fell back slightly and eight laps from the end was picked off by the second Tech 3 Yamaha of Andrea Dovizioso.

The Italian then inherited fourth when stablemate Crutchlow spluttered to a halt on the final lap, a cruel end to an impressive race.

Stefan Bradl took a lonely sixth, ahead of an equally lonely Valentino Rossi in seventh.

Results - 24 laps:

Pos  Rider               Team/Bike                Time/Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa        Honda                  42m31.569s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo       Yamaha                   + 4.275s
 3.  Alvaro Bautista     Gresini Honda            + 6.752s
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso    Tech 3 Yamaha           + 16.397s
 5.  Casey Stoner        Honda                   + 20.566s
 6.  Stefan Bradl        LCR Honda               + 24.567s
 7.  Valentino Rossi     Ducati                  + 26.072s
 8.  Nicky Hayden        Ducati                  + 36.724s
 9.  Katsuyuki Nakasuga  Yamaha                  + 36.794s
10.  Hector Barbera      Pramac Ducati         + 1m10.729s
11.  Karel Abraham       Cardion Ducati        + 1m15.658s
12.  Aleix Espargaro     Aspar Aprilia         + 1m22.769s
13.  Colin Edwards       Forward Suter-BMW     + 1m24.968s
14.  James Ellison       Paul Bird Aprilia     + 1m29.388s
15.  Michele Pirro       Gresini FTR-Honda     + 1m34.612s
16.  Roberto Rolfo       Speed Master Aprilia  + 1m50.853s

Retirements:

     Cal Crutchlow       Tech 3 Yamaha             23 laps
     Danilo Petrucci     Ioda Suter-BMW            23 laps
     Ivan Silva          Avintia BQR-Kawasaki      14 laps
     Randy de Puniet     Aspar Aprilia             14 laps
     Ben Spies           Yamaha                      1 lap
     Yonny Hernandez     Avintia BQR-Kawasaki        1 lap