Jorge Lorenzo scored his fourth MotoGP win of the season at Estoril in Portugal on Sunday and closed the gap to team-mate Valentino Rossi from 30 to 18 points with three rounds of the championship remaining.
The Spaniard, riding a Yamaha, won convincingly from pole ahead of a returning Casey Stoner of Australia (Ducati) and Spain’s Dani Pedrosa (Honda).  Defending champion Rossi struggled to fourth place, 23,4 seconds behind the winner.
The Italian, who started the race alongside Lorenzo on the front row of the grid, was unable to match the pace of his younger team-mate on this occasion and finished off the podium at Estoril for the first time in his premier division career.
Stoner, returning to MotoGP after a mysterious illness kept him out for the past two months, showed that he had lost none of his speed and skill and looked happy to be back on the Ducati.
By contrast, Rossi looked out of sorts all weekend and was in an uncharacteristically downbeat mood after the race.  He reported that a rear grip issue had prevented him from challenging for a podium.
Colin Edwards (Yamaha) finished fifth, 10 seconds behind Rossi, with Toni Elias (Honda) holding off Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) for sixth on the line.  Nicky Hayden (Ducati), James Toseland (Yamaha) and Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) rounded out the top 10.