Lorenzo dominates the British GP

In his wake, a huge battle for the podium spots ended with Andrea Dovizioso in second and Ben Spies taking his first MotoGP podium in third, while Casey Stoner recovered from a disastrous start to take fifth behind Nicky Hayden, and Dani Pedrosa faded to eighth.

Qualifying star Randy de Puniet was in the hunt for second until the final laps, when he was elbowed back to sixth place.

The opening lap had been a battle between Lorenzo's Yamaha and Pedrosa's Honda, with Lorenzo holding his pole advantage through Copse, before Pedrosa dived ahead into Stowe.

But Lorenzo was only behind for a single straight, as he outbraked Pedrosa into Vale. The latter retaliated into Abbey, only to run wide and let both de Puniet's LCR Honda and his factory Honda team-mate Dovizioso through.

Lorenzo was unstoppable after that, building an eight-second lead with apparent ease, while Pedrosa, who has crashed twice this weekend, gradually faded away.

Attention then focused on de Puniet's efforts to hang on to second under big pressure from a queue of rivals. Dovizioso made it through on lap six, but could not shake off de Puniet and lost the place again two laps later. Only at half distance was Dovizioso able to finally secure second.

De Puniet stayed in third until Hayden (Ducati) slipped ahead in the Arena section with four laps to go. Spies (Tech 3 Yamaha) followed immediately after, with the two Americans then mounting their own huge battle for third. Side by side repeatedly over the closing laps, Spies grabbed the position on the last lap and resisted Hayden's efforts to snatch third back again.

Stoner was right on their tails by the end too. He had tumbled to last off the line and had to pick his way through the field, getting stuck behind Pedrosa for several laps. But by the chequered flag he was within 0.4s of a podium finish.

Behind de Puniet, Marco Simoncelli had his most convincing MotoGP performance yet and took seventh. His Gresini Honda team-mate Marco Melandri crashed at Brooklands on the opening lap while trying to pass Spies.

Loris Capirossi also fell, going off at Copse mid-race as Suzuki's unhappy weekend got no better.

Only 15 bikes took the start, Interwetten Honda's Hiroshi Aoyama having been sidelined with back pain following his violent warm-up accident.

Pos  Rider             Team                 Time/Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             41m34.083s
 2.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda                + 6.743s
 3.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha        + 7.097s
 4.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati               + 7.314s
 5.  Casey Stoner      Ducati               + 7.494s
 6.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda            + 9.055s
 7.  Marco Simoncello  Gresini Honda       + 14.425s
 8.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda               + 15.313s
 9.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha       + 27.954s
10.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati       + 42.394s
11.  Hector Barbera    Aspar Ducati        + 43.365s
12.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki              + 43.408s
13.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati       + 43.580s

Retirements:

     Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             13 laps
     Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      0 laps
     Hiroshi Aoyama    Interwetten Honda  -