to rejoin the track down in last place. The order then began to settle down, and the top five of Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Crutchlow and Stoner began to pull out a gap to the rest the field. Behind them, Bautista, Bradl, and the Ducatis of Rossi and Hayden continued to fight over the following four places. Lorenzo took the lead from Pedrosa at the first turn on the sixth lap of the race, and started to build a gap immediately. Meanwhile, Stoner overtook Crutchlow to regain the position he had lost on the first lap, but the pair had already fallen two seconds behind the leading three bikes by this point. On lap 11, Pedrosa retook the lead from Lorenzo on the main straight, while Dovizioso remained close behind the pair. On the following lap, whilst trying to regain the position, Lorenzo overshot at the corner and was forced to ride across the kerbs to avoid the gravel. Dovizioso fell back to the ongoing battle between Stoner and Crutchlow on lap 15, whilst another battle between Bautista (sixth) and Rossi (seventh) began to catch up. After numerous attempts, Lorenzo managed to pass Pedrosa again to take the lead of the race with 6 laps remaining with a manoeuvre down the inside of turn 10. Pedrosa had a large, unintentional wheelie entering the corner due to problems with his bike, possibly allowing the pass to happen. The two riders now had a large lead over everyone else, but Pedrosa began to fall back from Lorenzo in the final three laps. On the 23rd and penultimate lap, Ben Spies managed to return into the top 10 by overtaking Héctor Barberá (Spies had been running in eleventh since lap 12, half-way through the race). On the final lap, Stoner managed to pull away from Crutchlow and catch up with Dovizioso; however, he wasn't able to make a pass and take a podium place. Jorge Lorenzo won the race to take his third victory of the season in front of his home fans, extending his championship lead over Stoner to 20 points. Lorenzo also set the fastest lap of the race. Dani Pedrosa finished second, a result he was disappointed with because he felt he could have won the race. He remained in third place in the standings, 30 points adrift of Lorenzo. Andrea Dovizioso completed the podium, taking Yamaha Tech 3's, and his,