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ESTORIL, PORTUGAL, APR 13: Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo won his first MotoGP race in only his third try, passing teammate Valentino Rossi on the 13th lap of 28 laps of the Portuguese Grand Prix and pulling away to victory.

The Mallorcan has been impressive since joining the senior class and this weekend that talent was on display. With Saturday's pole position, he became the first rider to qualify on pole in his first three races in the premier class. And with the victory he became the youngest ever rider to have three successive podium finishes in the premier class, stealing the honor from Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa by one day.

Pedrosa followed him home today after giving chase for half of the race with no success in a race that was run in the early going under a light drizzle onparts of the track. As the rain abated, the lap times dropped.

Pedrosa passed Rossi on lap 15 of 28 and set out after Lorenzo. The trio ran together for a few laps until Lorenzo gapped Pedrosa by a second on the 18th lap with Rossi dropping farther back.

Lorenzo’s lead never went over two seconds, but it came close, and when the race ended it was 1.817 secs. Rossi was another 10.9 secs. back in third.

The victory was Yamaha’s second in three races this year and put Lorenzo into a championship tie with Pedrosa. Both hold 61 points going into the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai in three weeks time. Rossi is third with 47.

It was also Michelin's second win in three races with the French brand taking three of the top four spots.

Tech 3 Yamaha’s Colin Edwards finished a solid fourth, his best finish of the year for his new team. For much of the first half of the race he ran in formation with his fellow Americans Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda) and John Hopkins, the Kawasaki rider who chased the leaders from close in in the early going.

Hayden’s day ended with a spill on the 17th lap. At the time he was in fourth place, having inherited the spot when JiR Team Scot MotoGP’s Andrea Dovizioso crashed out of fourth a lap earlier. Dovizioso later admitted he was riding over his head to keep up and got caught out.

Hopkins was alone in fifth, with the rest of the field spreading out. Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner recovered from a disappointing early start of the race to take sixth place.
The Australian was well up on Tech 3 Yamaha’s James Toseland, with the Rizla Suzukis next, Chris Vermeulen in front of Loris Capirossi. Next came San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Shinya Nakano.

MotoGP:

1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)

2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)

3. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)

4. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)

5. John Hopkins (Kawasaki)

6. Casey Stoner (Ducati)

7. James Toseland (Yamaha)

8. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki)

9. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)

10. Shinya Nakano (Honda)

11. Alex de Angelis (Honda)

12. Toni Elias (Ducati)

13. Marco Melandri (Ducati)

14. Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati)

15. Randy de Puniet (Honda)

16. Anthony West (Kawasaki)

DNF:
Nicky Hayden (Honda)
Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)