Lorenzo in seventh heaven

Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo claimed his seventh MotoGP victory of the season with a dominant display at the Czech Grand Prix.

The Fiat Yamaha rider started from third on the grid but took the lead from pole sitter Dani Pedrosa on the opening lap.

Lorenzo was consistently quickest throughout the 22-lap race and ended up taking the chequered flag more than five seconds clear of Honda's Pedrosa.

The Spaniard, who is now 77 points ahead of Pedrosa in the title race, celebrated by walking to a neighbouring golf course to take a putt, which he needed two to hole.

"I couldn't put the ball in the hole but at least I could win the race!" said Lorenzo, whose win equals Giacomo Agostini and Michael Doohan's record of finishing first or second in the first 10 races of the season.

"It was a very difficult day as I had crashed in qualifying so my confidence was not so high. The wind made it difficult for the riders but for me its a fantastic win."

Casey Stoner of Ducati took third after a tight tussle with the Tech 3 Yamaha of Ben Spies, while Lorenzo's team-mate Valentino Rossi finished fifth.

Crash

Repsol's Andrea Dovizioso was battling with Spies and Stoner for third before a nasty crash on the fourth lap ended his hopes.

The Italian, who was hit by an oncoming bike after he went down, remounted and continued the race - but tailed off in last place and eventually pulled into the pits.

"I don't know exactly what happened," he said. "There was a lot of wind so that explains the slower times out there. I made one mistake as I really pushed hard at the beginning to keep in touch with Lorenzo and Pedrosa.

"However, I am really angry because the way the race has panned out I think we would have been really challenging for second or third place."

Result
1 Jorge Lorenzo (Spn) Yamaha 43 mins 22.638secs
2 Dani Pedrosa (Spn) Honda 43:28.132
3 Casey Stoner (Aus) Ducati 43:34.064
4 Ben Spies (US) Yamaha 43:36.361
5 Valentino Rossi (Ita) Yamaha 43:40.568
6 Nicky Hayden (US) Ducati 43:49.453
7 Colin Edwards (US) Yamaha 43:56.034
8 Marco Melandri (Ita) Honda 44:02.044
9 Hector Barbera (Spn) Ducati 44:02.277
10 Randy de Puniet (Fra) Honda 44:03.531
11 Marco Simoncelli (Ita) Honda 44:04.670
12 Aleix Espargaro (Spn) Ducati 44:09.729
13 Alex de Angelis (SnM) Honda 44:14.006
14 Alvaro Bautista (Spn) Suzuki 21 Laps
15 Mika Kallio (Fin) Ducati 7 Laps