Honda's Dani Pedrosa powered to victory in front of his home crowd at the Spanish MotoGP in Jerez.

Pedrosa, last year's championship runner-up, took the championship lead after and the race lead early afterstarting from second on the grid finishing ahead of Valentino Rossi.

Lorenzo grabbed third place, while current champion Casey Stoner finished 11th after twice running in to the gravel.

Pedrosa had overtaken Lorenzo who had been on pole at the first corner and from then on no one could mount a serious challenge for the remainder of the contest.

The win was Pedrosa's first at Jerez and came less than three months after he broke his hand during training.

Pedrosa told the press that he very happy about the performance because it comes after a difficult winter during which the team couldn't test so much. Adding that to score good results in two complicated races and lead the championship is very important.

Casey Stoner was always playing catch up during the race having started in seventh place, but a further dent his chances of a podium finish happened on lap three when he ended up in the gravel and was relegated to the back of the field.

By the end, he managed to get back to 11th place but another error when he tried to pass Shinya Nakano and Chris Vermeuelen saw him in the gravel once more.

Toseland's result was all the more impressive as he was suffering from a chest infection, so expect better in the next races from the up and coming Brit.

Jerez MotoGP result:
1 D Pedrosa (Sp) Honda
2 V Rossi (It) Yamaha
3 J Lorenzo (Sp) Yamaha
4 N Hayden (US) Honda
5 L Capirossi (It) Suzuki
6 J Toseland (GB) Yamaha
7 J Hopkins (US) Kawasaki
8 A Dovizioso (It) Honda