Lorenzo regrets earlier crashes

The Yamaha rider won the race after Rossi and pole-sitter Dani Pedrosa both fell in separate incidents, cutting Rossi's advantage in the standings from 50 points to 25.

But Lorenzo knows he could now be leading the championship were it not for crashes at Jerez, Donington Park and Brno.

"I'm very happy but also a bit sad after this race. I'm sad with having made crashes before, because without them I would be further up," Lorenzo told Italia1 television. "But it's ok, if you want to win this championship you need to go like that, on the limit. This time this happened to Vale and Dani: I'm sorry for them but I'm happy.

"This is the good and bad with racing. Sometimes you do well, you're strong and quick but you crash and all your chances disappear. Today, instead, it happened to Valentino and also to Pedrosa, unluckily for them but good for me, that's the truth. I'm very happy because it's the first time I feel so well with the bike. I think I could have done a high 1m39s if Valentino didn't crash. We were going very quick, but in the end I think Valentino pushed too hard and dropped it."

Lorenzo admitted to struggling to keep pace with Pedrosa and Rossi in the early laps, but says he was feeling confident on the bike by the time he overtook Rossi for the lead on lap nine.

"At the beginning of the race I was struggling a bit to stay with Dani and Valentino, but after a couple of laps it was easier and when I overtook Valentino he was going a bit slow compared to my rhythm. I don't know whether that was because he wanted to let me through, or because he couldn't go any quicker, so I decided to overtake him and tried to run off."