Spain’s Dani Pedrosa has strengthened his bid for the 2012 MotoGP World Championship title after dominating his rivals on the way to a second win of the season at the 11th round of 18 at Indianapolis.

Having finished all but one race on the podium this season, Pedrosa came to Indianapolis having manoeuvred himself into a convincing title challenging position, 23 points behind Jorge Lorenzo, but ahead of Repsol Honda team-mate Casey Stoner.

However, with Stoner hampered by his ankle injury and Lorenzo enduring an unusually indifferent weekend on the normally consistent Yamaha, Pedrosa took full advantage to reduce the overall lead to 18 points with seven races remaining.

Starting from pole position, through Pedrosa was beaten to the first turn by Ben Spies, he was back ahead by lap four and never looked back, the Spaniard crossing the line 11 seconds up on Lorenzo to add to his earlier Sachsenring success.

“I’m extremely happy with this win and I really want to congratulate the whole team for the great job they’ve done this weekend, the bike worked perfectly,” he said. “It was difficult at the beginning of the race because the pace was very strong from the start. I got past Ben Spies, but I kept calm because I knew I had the pace today to fight for the victory.

“When I took the lead, I put in some very strong laps to build up a gap and then I made a mistake in turn 2 going into neutral and Jorge reduced the gap by 1 second. But I was able to get back on my pace and ride comfortably to the end, where I think Jorge struggled a little with the soft rear tyre. We managed to take our second win of the season and every point is important.

Pedrosa also took the time to praise Stoner’s brave ride to fourth place following his injury, the pair now split by 21 points in the Spaniard’s favour.

“I want to also congratulate Casey for his result; he did a superb race in his condition and I am sure he will be strong again in Brno.”

Race results from Indianapolis:

1       Daniel Pedrosa    Honda        ESP   46’39.631

2       Jorge Lorenzo      Yamaha      ESP  0’10.823

3       Andrea Dovizioso Yamaha      ITA   0’17.310

4       Casey Stoner      Honda        AUS  0’19.803

5       Alvaro Bautista    Honda        ESP   0’22.556

6       Stefan Bradl        Honda        GER  0’30.072

7       Valentino Rossi    Ducati        ITA    0’57.614

8       Karel Abraham    Ducati        CZE   1’08.442

9       Yonny Hernandez BQR-FTR    COL   1’11.106

10     Aleix Espargaro   ART            ESP   1’14.079

11     Toni Elias           Ducati         ESP  1’26.305

12     Ivan Silva           BQR            ESP   1’40.274

13     Colin Edwards     Suter         USA   -1Laps

14     James Ellison      ART           GBR   -1Laps

15     Steve Rapp Kawasaki            USA   -1Laps

Championship standings after 11 of 18 rounds:

1.      Jorge Lorenzo      Yamaha     ESP   225

2.      Daniel Pedrosa    Honda        ESP   207

3.      Casey Stoner      Honda        AUS  186

4.      Andrea Dovizioso Yamaha      ITA   137

5.      Cal Crutchlow      Yamaha     GBR   106

6.      Stefan Bradl        Honda        GER  94

7.      Alvaro Bautista    Honda        ESP   92

8.      Valentino Rossi    Ducati        ITA    91

9.      Nicky Hayden      Ducati        USA  84

10.    Ben Spies           Yamaha      USA   66

11.    Hector Barbera    Ducati        ESP   60

12.    Aleix Espargaro   ART   ESP   39

13.    Randy De Puniet  ART   FRA   33

14.    Karel Abraham    Ducati        CZE   18

15.    Yonny Hernandez BQR-FTR    COL   17

16.    Michele Pirro       FTR   ITA    16