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Pedrosa goes down but Stoner wins

BRNO, Czech Republic - It was a great start for Honda's Dani Pedrosa with a post-injury comeback and pole for the Czech MotoGP but it all went wrong in the first few laps as he went down - and out - and left the race to team mate Casey Stoner.

In fact it was a Honda 1-2-3 with Andrea Dovizioso second and Italy's Marco Simoncelli third - his first first podium place at this level.

Defending World champion Jorge Lorenzo lost more points to Australian Stoner in finishing fourth, followed by Ben Spies (Yamaha) then Ducati's Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden.

'REALLY TOUGH BATTLE'

Other fallers were Britain's Cal Crutchlow, Czech Karel Abraham and Spain's Alvaro Bautista.

It was Stoner's sixth MotoGP victory of the 2011 season. The 25-year-old, winning here for the first time since 2007, the year he went on to win his only MotoGP World crown, beat Honda Repsol team mate, Italian Andrea Dovizioso, by 6.532sec.

"I had a really tough battle with Andrea in the early laps but once I got past him I realised the bike had enough speed," Stoner said after his 29th MotoGP. "After a tough weekend it's really satisfying to win here.”

Dovizioso said he was pleased with his result and with "a really competitive team". "I made a really good start... I tried to cut Casey but I made a mistake."

Italy's Marco Simoncelli said: "We as a team were confident of achieving a podium position this season and I am really happy to have got my first one."

LORENZO'S BRIEF LEAD

Stoner, with seven races to go in the season, now has a comfortable overall lead with 218 points ahead of Lorenzo (186) and Dovizioso (163).

Spanish pole-starter Dani Pedrosa crashed out from leading on lap three; other fallers later in the race were Britain's Cal Crutchlow and Czech Karel Abraham – to the home crowd’s intense disappointment.

Stoner took the lead and kept building his advantage until a few laps before the finish when he allowed the chasers to narrow the gap. Lorenzo did lead briefly on lap one but then bowed to pressure from Dovizioso and Simoncelli and had to fight hard to shake off Yamaha's US rider Ben Spies, who was fifth.

Italian Ducati rider Valentino Rossi was sixth, so failing to extend his record of five MotoGP victories on Brno's undulating, 5.403km circuit about 180km south-east of the Czech capital, Prague.

Spain's Alvaro Bautista's crash six laps from the finish made the weekend a total failure for his Rizla Suzuki team; his American team mate John Hopkins broke a finger during Saturday's practice and was ruled out of the race.

RESULTS
1 Casey STONER (AUS) Honda 43min16.796
2 Andrea DOVIZIOSO (ITA) Honda +6.532
3 Marco SIMONCELLI (ITA) Honda +7.792
4 1Jorge LORENZO (SPA) Yamaha +8.513
5 Ben SPIES (USA) Yamaha +10.186
6 Valentino ROSSI (ITA) Ducati +12.632
7 Nicky HAYDEN (USA) Ducati +23.037
8 Colin EDWARDS (USA) Yamaha +24.189
9 Hiroshi AOYAMA (JPN) Honda     +25.202
10 Hector BARBERA (SPA) Ducati +36.566
11 Toni ELIAS (SPA) Honda +36.679
12 Randy DE PUNIET (FRA) Ducati +37.109
13 Loris CAPIROSSI (ITA) Ducati +48.911
DNF
Alvaro BAUTISTA Suzuki
Karel ABRAHAM Ducati
Cal CRUTCHLOW Yamaha
Dani PEDROSA Honda

OTHER RACES

Earlier on Saturday, Italian Suter rider Andrea Iannone won the Moto2 thriller ahead of Spain's Marc Marquez and Stefan Bradl of Germany, who is leading the championship 43 points ahead of Marquez.

Germany's Sandro Cortese of Aprilia scored the first victory of his career by edging ahead of France's Johann Zarco in the 125cc race, with Spain's Alberto Moncayo third. Championship leader Nicolas Terol retired early in the race.

<b>Leading times in qualifying on Saturday for Sunday's Czech MotoGP</b>
1 Dani Pedrosa (ESP/Honda) 1min56.591
2 Jorge Lorenzo (ESP/Yamaha) +0.113
3 Casey Stoner (AUS/Honda) +0.269
4 Ben Spies (USA/Yamaha) +.587
5 Marco Simoncelli (ITA/Honda) +0.760
6 Valentino Rossi (ITA/Ducati) +0.776
7 Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Honda) +0.851
8 Colin Edwards (USA/Yamaha) +1.085
9 Nicky Hayden (USA/Ducati) +1.130
10 Hiroshi Aoyama (JPN/Honda) +1.193
11 Cal Crutchlow (GBR/Yamaha) +1.206
12 Toni Elias (ESP/Honda) +1.654
13 Hector Barbera (ESP/Ducati) +1.682
14 Alvaro Bautista (ESP/Suzuki) +1.683
15 Randy de Puniet (FRA/Ducati) +2.298
16 Loris Capirossi (ITA/Ducati) +2.347
17 Karel Abraham (CZE/Ducati) +2.355
18 John Hopkins (USA/Suzuki) DNS
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