Aragon MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa dominates to beat Jorge Lorenzo

The Honda rider was in a class of his own on the Spanish track, able to set such a punishing pace at the front that not even championship leader Jorge Lorenzo could live with him.

His winning margin eventually stretched to 6.4s.

Lorenzo did at least have the comfort of finishing second, surrendering just five points in the championship as a result. His lead, boosted by Pedrosa's first lap exit at Misano, now stands at 33 points with just four races to run.

While his championship hopes were not massively dented, on track the damage was more pronounced.

Lorenzo had led the opening five laps, and then tried to stay with Pedrosa once the Honda man made his move. Ultimately he had no answer to his rival's pace however, suffering one massive moment as he tried in vain to pull back an ever-widening gap.

Even as Lorenzo lost ground though he was still faster than the chasing pack, which was led for the majority of the race by Yamaha team-mate Ben Spies.

The American briefly lost out to LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl on lap three, only to see the German fall at Turn 3 half a lap later.

That still left Spies defending from Tech 3 pair Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso, with the trio separated by less than one second for much of the race.

Ten laps from the end Dovizioso completed his move from fifth to third, before Crutchlow followed him past Spies one lap later.

Crutchlow remained glued to Dovizioso's wheel for the remainder of the race, attacking several times on the final lap. Dovizioso hung on however to claim his sixth podium of the year for the satellite outfit.

In contrast to that battle, Gresini's Alvaro Bautista was able to take a quiet sixth, his progress aided by a variety of incidents, including that of Bradl.

Ducati's Nicky Hayden also fell early, getting flipped over an advertising boarding as he tried to wrestle his bike from running wide at Turn 16. The heavy impact necessitated a visit to the medical centre, although Hayden was later cleared.

His Ducati team-mate Valentino Rossi also hit trouble, making contact with Honda's Jonathan Rea - making what could be his last appearance as Casey Stoner's stand-in - on the opening lap.

Rossi dropped out of the top 20 as a result of running massively wide, but fought his way back to eighth, behind Rea.

Results - 23 laps:

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                Time/Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                  42m10.444s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                   + 6.472s
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha           + 11.047s
 4.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha           + 11.184s
 5.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                  + 13.786s
 6.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda           + 28.166s
 7.  Jonathan Rea      Honda                   + 32.290s
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                  + 44.432s
 9.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati          + 57.417s
10.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia           + 58.525s
11.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia           + 59.863s
12.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati         + 1m14.561s
13.  Yonny Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  + 1m16.159s
14.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia     + 1m16.580s
15.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda     + 1m25.815s
16.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia  + 1m31.801s
17.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda Suter-BMW        + 1m42.300s
18.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW         + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                  4 laps
     David Salom       Avintia FTR-Kawasaki       3 laps
     Nicky Hayden      Ducati                      1 lap