Dani Pedrosa edged world championship leader Jorge Lorenzo for a hard-fought victory in the Czech MotoGP yesterday to reduce his lead in the overall standings.
Coming off a win at the Indianapolis Grand Prix last weekend, the Spanish Honda rider covered 22 laps of the 5.403km Brno circuit in 42 minutes, 51.570 seconds to capture his third victory of the season.
Pedrosa, who is seeking his first championship title, reduced Lorenzo’s overall lead to 13 points with six races to go.
Yamaha rider Lorenzo, who was the 2010 champion, leads with 245 points from 12 races, Pedrosa is on 232 and defending champion Casey Stoner on 186. Stoner missed the race because of an ankle injury.
Starting third on the grid, Pedrosa overtook Lorenzo, who went ahead from pole, midway through the race, but the lead changed hands several times on the final lap. Pedrosa made the decisive pass on the last turn to cruise to the victory, 0.178 second ahead of his Spanish compatriot.
Cal Crutchlow of Britain finished third, 12.343 seconds behind, for his first career MotoGP podium, while another Yamaha rider, Andrea Dovizioso of Italy, was fourth, 18.591 off the pace.
In the Moto2 category, Marc Marquez finished in front of Thomas Luthi for his sixth victory of the season to stretch his overall lead to 48 points.
Jonas Folger dominated the Moto3 class to claim his first victory in this new category.
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