Moto GP: Lorenzo joins elite after Brno victory

Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo won his seventh race of the season at the Czech Grand Prix to extend his Moto GP championship lead to 77 points.

The 23-year-old Yamaha rider started third but quickly jumped into the lead on the first lap, where he stayed for the rest of the race on the 5.4-km Brno circuit, finishing more than five seconds ahead of compatriot and pole-sitter Dani Pedrosa.

Australian Casey Stoner finished third on a Ducati, beating Ben Spies into fourth in the American's first front-row start. Italian world champion Valentino Rossi, who moves to Ducati for the 2011 season, finished fifth, where he started.

Despite crashing in qualifying and difficult conditions on the day, Lorenzo became only the third rider in 62 years of GP to finish in the top two in each of the first 10 races of a season.

"I had a good start. After the second, third corner I was in first and decided to push the maximum," Lorenzo said. "It was a difficult race because of the wind."