Casey Stoner tightened his grip on this year's MotoGP world title with victory in the Czech round at Brno Sunday.
The Australian was claiming his sixth victory of the season as he relegated Repsol Honda teammate Andrea Dovizioso to second place.
Dovizioso's fellow Italian Marco Simoncelli completed the podium on another works Honda, the first time he had occupied a place on the rostrum at this level.
Yamaha's reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo of Spain finished fourth to lose more ground on Stoner.
With seven races to go in the season, Stoner has 218 points with Lorenzo trailing on 186 and Dovizioso with 163.
Stoner was winning at Brno for the first time since 2007 when he won his previous world title.
"I had a really tough battle with Andrea (Dovizioso) in the early laps but once I got past him I realized the bike had enough speed," Stoner told the official MotoGP website after his near seven second victory.
Spain's Dani Pedrosa started from pole but crashed out early on to leave the way clear for Stoner to dominate.
Yamaha's Ben Spies of the United States took the fifth place with multi world champion Valentino Rossi sixth for Ducati.
Italy's Andrea Iannone won the Moto2 race while Germany's Sandro Cortese took his first career win in the 125cc series.
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