Pedrosa dominates at Indianapolis to close on MotoGP championship lead

The Spaniard finished a distant second, while Casey Stoner - riding with damaged ligaments and a fractured right ankle - was denied a podium finish after a long fight with Andrea Dovizioso.

The Spaniard's only realistic rival was Yamaha's Ben Spies, who led in the early laps but then suffered a blown engine - the latest in a string of misfortunes for the Texan - while running second.

That left Pedrosa to cruise to victory, with the Spaniard's ability to up his pace and lap beyond the capability of the rest of the MotoGP field turning the race into something of a procession out front.

A new lap record underlined his complete control at the halfway mark, and while he suffered a moment at Turn 2 one lap later he was still able to edge away from Lorenzo, eventually cruising home to a 10 second victory margin.

With Spies out, the fight for the final podium spot boiled down to Tech 3 Yamaha's Andrea Dovizioso and Stoner.

The Australian had previously come through from seventh, passing the satellite Hondas of Alvaro Bautista (Gresini) and Stefan Bradl (LCR) before also picking off Dovizioso.

The Italian kept him honest however and seven laps from the end moved back in front, before eventually breaking free of the Australian as the latter faded in the final few laps.

Stoner now trails Lorenzo by 36 points in the championship.

Bautista beat Bradl to sixth, while a long way down the road - and only slightly ahead of the lead CRT riders - Valentino Rossi came home a lonely seventh.

Cal Crutchlow had held the position until crashing out at Turn 4 early on, the first time this year he has failed to score points.

Avintia's Yonny Hernandez and Aspar's Aleix Espargaro were set to match the highest CRT finish of 2012 as they squabbled for eighth, but their fight was demoted to one for ninth late on as Karel Abraham (Cardion Ducati) came through.

Hernandez eventually triumphed in the battle, with Espargaro therefore completing the top 10.

Results - 28 laps:

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                    Time/Gap
 1.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                      46m39.631s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                      + 10.823s
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha               + 17.310s
 4.  Casey Stoner      Honda                       + 19.803s
 5.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda               + 22.556s
 6.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                   + 30.072s
 7.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                      + 57.614s
 8.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati            + 1m08.442s
 9.  Yonny Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      + 1m11.106s
10.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia             + 1m14.079s
11.  Toni Elias        Pramac Ducati             + 1m26.305s
12.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  + 1m40.274s
13.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW             + 1 lap
14.  Steve Rapp        Attack-Kawasaki               + 1 lap
15.  James Ellison     Paul BirdAprilia              + 1 lap
16.  Aaron Yates       GPTech BCL-Suzuki             + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha                  9 laps
     Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia                  8 laps
     Ben Spies         Yamaha                         6 laps
     Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda               1 lap
     Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia           0 laps
     Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia                   0 laps