Spain’s Dani Pedrosa kept the pressure on MotoGP title favourite and fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo with a dominant victory at their home GP at Aragon at the weekend, the 14th round of 18 in the series.

The Repsol Honda star seized the lead from Lorenzo on the seventh lap and never looked back, powering away to take his fourth triumph of the season by 6.4 seconds from Lorenzo.

Pedrosa, whose hopes of the title took a battering when he was taken out of contention on the opening lap at Misano, has now closed the gap to the Yamaha rider to 33 points with four rounds of the championship remaining.

His team faced a race against time to completely rebuild his RC213V before the race, but Pedrosa made amends in the best way possible.

Lorenzo remains a strong favourite to lift his second premier class crown, but Pedrosa served notice that he will battle all the way.

“In the race I remained calm and was able to focus, Jorge began very fast in the early laps but I was able to stay with him and then after a few laps I saw I could increase the pace,” said Pedrosa, who celebrated his 27th birthday at the weekend.

“I passed him and tried to find my own rhythm. I was concentrating so hard that I almost forgot that it was a race, then I realised there were only four laps to go!

“I had a few issues with the clutch into the corners, shifting down, as I did yesterday, but overall the bike was working well so thanks to all my team for their hard work last night and to my fans and family for their support, this victory is for them all.”

Honda now leads the Constructors Championship by six points ahead of the manufacturer’s home Grand Prix in Japan.

HRC will confirm next week whether reigning champion Casey Stoner will return at Motegi.

His replacement, Jonathan Rea, finished a creditable seventh at Aragon.

RESULTS from the Spanish GP at Aragon

1       Daniel Pedrosa    Honda        ESP   42’10.444

2       Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha       ESP  0’06.472

3       Andrea Dovizioso Yamaha       ITA  0’11.047

4       Cal Crutchlow      Yamaha      GBR  0’11.184

5       Ben Spies            Yamaha     USA   0’13.786

6       Alvaro Bautista    Honda        ESP   0’28.166

7       Jonathan Rea      Honda        GBR  0’32.290

8       Valentino Rossi    Ducati        ITA    0’44.432

9       Karel Abraham    Ducati        CZE   0’57.417

10     Aleix Espargaro   ART            ESP   0’58.525

11     Randy De Puniet  ART            FRA  0’59.863

12     Hector Barbera    Ducati        ESP   1’14.561

13     Yonny Hernandez         BQR-FTR   COL   1’16.159

14     James Ellison       ART            GBR  1’16.580

15     Michele Pirro       FTR            ITA   1’25.815

MotoGP world standings, after 14 of 18 rounds:

1.      Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha       ESP  290

2.      Daniel Pedrosa    Honda        ESP   257

3.      Casey Stoner      Honda        AUS  186

4.      Andrea Dovizioso Yamaha      ITA   179

5.      Cal Crutchlow      Yamaha     GBR   135

6.      Alvaro Bautista    Honda        ESP   128

7.      Valentino Rossi    Ducati        ITA    128

8.      Stefan Bradl        Honda        GER  115

9.      Nicky Hayden      Ducati        USA  93

10.    Ben Spies          Yamaha        USA  88

11.    Hector Barbera    Ducati        ESP   64

12.    Randy De Puniet  ART            FRA  53

13.    Aleix Espargaro   ART            ESP   51

14.    Karel Abraham    Ducati        CZE   32

15.    Yonny Hernandez         BQR-FTR   COL   28

16.    Michele Pirro       FTR            ITA   25