Lorenzo completes Estoril three-timer

The 23-year-old got the better of a close battle with the man he dethroned as champion, his team-mate Valentino Rossi, with Honda rider Andrea Doviziozo grabbing third on the line.

Lorenzo, who claimed his first MotoGP title after finishing third to Rossi in Malaysia earlier this month, started from pole on the strength of his free practice times after Saturday\'s qualifying was washed out.

The race, the penultimate leg of the 2010 season, which concludes in Valencia next weekend, was held in perfect, dry conditions, but that didn\'t prevent Australian Casey Stoner from slithering off the circuit after just five laps.

Stoner was placed third in the overall standings going into this race but has now slipped back a place to fourth, with Rossi moving up to third.

For Lorenzo this circuit west of Lisbon has proved a happy hunting ground, for it was here that he won his first ever MotoGP in 2008 and he returned to win again in 2009.

This was his eighth race win of the campaign and it pushed him up to 368 points, with Dani Pedrosa, only eighth here, lying second on 236, ahead of Rossi with 217 and Stoner on 205.

Rossi and Lorenzo battled for control from the start, but once Lorenzo hit the front on lap 17 of 28 he never looked back, eventually crossing the line 8.629sec up on his Italian rival.

Victory left Lorenzo still on target to beat Rossi\'s record number of 373 points, set in the 2008 season.

Rossi finished 18sec ahead of Doviziozo, who edged third from Marco Simoncelli by 0.059sec.

Earlier, Germany\'s Stefan Bradl won the Moto2 race, the Suter rider coming in clear of Italian Alex Baldolini (ICP) and San Marino\'s Alex De Angelis (Motobi).

This was the 21-year-old Bradl\'s first Moto2 win to add to his two successes in the 125cc division.

Newly-crowned world champion Toni Elias failed to finish, parting company with his Moriwaki bike on the 15th lap.

The feat of the race was produced by Turkey\'s Kenan Sufuoglu, who -- on his first ever tilt at a Moto2 GP -- led the field on his Suter until seven laps from the end before finishing fifth.

The 2010 MotoGP season concludes in Valencia on November 7.

© Copyright AFP Agence France-Presse GmbH - All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.