Spain’s Dani Pedrosa finally broke the Casey Stoner/Jorge Lorenzo victory stranglehold on MotoGP 2012 with a thrilling win at the Sachsenring in Germany on Sunday.

Many of Pedrosa’s previous 15 MotoGP wins have been runaway affairs. Not so on Sunday when he was either attacking or defending against team-mate and reigning champion Casey Stoner, of Australia.

Having taken the holeshot into turn one, but then passed by Stoner on lap two, Pedrosa made what turned out to be his winning pass when he out-braked the Australian into turn one at the start of lap 19 of 30.

But they were still just metres apart as the final lap began and Stoner, winner of three races this year and the joint championship leader, clearly had no intention of settling for second.

Then, as Stoner dived downhill and peeled into the first of the left handers that end the lap, the front of his RCV folded and he slid into his first self-inflicted retirement since joining HRC at the start of 2011.

Pedrosa, unaware of his team-mate’s exit, indicated he would have been more than capable of holding his own by posting the fastest lap of the race on that final lap.

With Stoner out, Pedrosa took his first 1000cc victory and third successive German GP win by a massive 15-seconds from Lorenzo.

“It was a difficult because we did many changes before the race and almost everything on the bike was different,” revealed Pedrosa. “I could not get familiar with the bike at the beginning and Casey was leading quite easily and I was following.

“But as I got more familiar I overtook Casey and was in front for many laps, but with Casey right behind me. ‘+0’ every lap. We were both doing fast laps and he was full on.

“I knew it would come down to the last lap. I tried to push myself to the limit. I knew I had good braking and so I felt confident, but you never know. I was pushing my best and to finally get the win is unbelievable.

“I’m very happy after so many races in second and third, winning is a great feeling. I want to give it up to my team and all the people around me. Thank you.”

Pedrosa – rumoured to have agreed terms for a new Repsol Honda contract – now trails fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo by just 14 points in the championship, with Stoner dropping 20-points behind in third.

Lorenzo has won four races this year, Stoner three and Pedrosa one.

Round nine of 18 is set for Mugello, Italy, next weekend.

Photo courtesy MotoGP

German MotoGP Results:

1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
3. Andrea Dovizioso (Yamaha)
4. Ben Spies (Yamaha)
5. Stefan Bradl (Honda)
6. Valentino Rossi (Ducati)
7. Alvaro Bautista (Honda)
8. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
9. Hector Barbera (Ducati)
10. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)
11. Randy de Puniet (ART)
12. Colin Edwards (Suter-BMW)

Championship standings after round eight of 18:

1       Jorge Lorenzo      Yamaha 160

2       Dani Pedrosa       Honda 146

3       Casey Stoner      Honda 140

4       Andrea Dovizioso Yamaha 92

5       Cal Crutchlow      Yamaha 85

6       Valentino Rossi    Ducati 71

7       Álvaro Bautista    Honda 67

8       Nicky Hayden      Ducati 65

9       Stefan Bradl        Honda 62

10     Ben Spies   Yamaha 61

11     Héctor Barberá    Ducati 53

12     Randy de Puniet  ART 24

13     Aleix Espargaró   ART 23

14     Michele Pirro       FTR 16

15     Mattia Pasini       ART 12

16     James Ellison      ART 10

17     Danilo Petrucci    Ioda 9

18     Colin Edwards     Suter 8

19     Yonny Hernández BQR-FTR 6

20     Iván Silva   BQR-FTR 5

21     Karel Abraham    Ducati 4