Catalunya is a brilliant circuit, usually blessed with sunshine and a grippy surface. Though obviously the temperature that can get a little on the high side and as a result, grip can occasionally be wanting. And tyres can go off rather quickly as well, as they basically melt. However, the circuit itself, while it has no standout features, always seems to produce great racing. Last year's visit here gave us possibly the best race ever between three worthy contenders, all of whom ended up on the same points at the end. Now this year that's not going to happen. One of the three - Valentino Rossi - is still recovering from injury while another - Casey Stoner - has yet to really start his season properly. But the third - Jorge Lorenzo - is on home territory and is on something of a roll as far as his race performance is concerned. He also comes here with a massive forty-seven point lead, which while being far from unassailable is one heck of a cushion to be able to rely on.

The good news is that the grid this time out was slightly less sparse than last week. Marco Melandri reappeared, apparently none the worse for his ignominious Assen departure. And Wataru Yosikawa has joined the Fiat Yamaha team to fill Valentino Rossi's seat untilt he Italian is fit to ride again. So at least there was a chance that just by getting to the start line a rider might not automatically be guaranteed of a championship point. There are still only seventeen riders on the grid, but that's a distinct improvement.

Last year Valentino Rossi mugged Lorenzo on the last corner to take one of the closest wins in history. This year the Doctor isn't here, so that's one threat less for Lorenzo to worry about. Not that it seemed to make much difference to the Spaniard as he utterly dominated both free practice sessions, with Pedrosa and Stoner taking a turn each at the second and third steps on the leaderboard. Dovizioso, de Puniet, Spies and Espargaro all made forays toward the top end, as well, showing that although the field is numerically small there is a wide range of talent on tap.

Which showed even more in qualifying. Jorge Lorenzo continued hios record of clean sweeps, taking pole from Stoner by a massive third of a second. Randy de Puniet is proving to be quite a qualifier, the amiable Frenchman taking third on the grid, just a tenth behind Stoner while Pedrosa headed the second row, just eight hundredths behind. Ben Spies is also looking like quite a catch for Yamaha, qualifying a solid fifth ahead of Andrea Dovizioso on the second works Honda. In a particularly good day for Suzuki, row three was headed by Loris Capirossi, with Alvaro Bautista closing it off and Marco Simoncelli sandwiched in the middle. And, rounding out the top ten, Colin Edwards in what has to be his worst season ever. I wonder if he'll be joining us back in SBK next year? That would be interesting - three double champions competing in the series could really pep things up a bit.

Warmup, astonishingly, saw Lorenzo third behind Pedrosa and Stoner. Not exactly a yawning performance gulf, or even, to be honest, a significant event. But at least Pedrosa and Stoner must have derived a faint glimour of hope that they could, perhaps, go faster than Lorenzo today. But only a glimour.

On to the race, then. Lights out and it was Lorenzo who got the holeshot, but Pedrosa made a spectacular start and out-dragged the Yamaha rider to the first turn. Then the diminutive Spaniard had one of the most frightening experiences possible. His Honda had bucked a bit under acceleration and the front brake discs, being fully floating and thus free to move a bit from side to side, had flapped around and hammered the brake pads back into the caliper. As a result, when he hit the brakes for turn one all that ahppened was he trapped his pinkie behind the brake lever as it came all the way back without slowing the bike at all. Some frantic (and very cool headed) pumping on the lever returned full braking force but by then he'd run on at the corner and out onto the second area of tarmac outside the kerbs. Fortunately he was able to rejoin, but in eleventh place having wisely taken it slowly to avoid being accused of cutting the corner and picking up a ride-through. Which meant that it was Lorenzo, Stoner and Dovizioso at the front, with de Puniet following close behind and Simoncelli behind him. Then it was Bautista and Capirossi ahead of Spies.

By the end of the first lap Pedrosa, having established that there was nothing worng with the bike, had climbed back up to ninth and was clearly on a charge. Indeed, by lap six he was up into third having passed Stoner when he ran wide on that same turn one, this time through a mistake rather than a technical issue, the Australian ending up three places back as de Puniet got through as well. Stoner had already yielded second place to a hard charging (and on form) Dovizioso on the second lap, and the lead trio were clearly in a class of their own as they stayed glued together while extending a lead over the rest of the field. So by that sixth lap, when Pedrosa got to the front of the pursuing pack, there was over two and a quarter seconds between him and the second placed Dovizioso. And that lead kept growing, so that by lap fourteen while there was just four tenths of a second between Lorenzo and Doovizioso, there was over four and a half seconds back to Pedrosa.

And then it all went wrong for the Italian Honda rider. Pushing hard after Lorenzo, the front Bridgestone tucked and Dozivioso slid uncermoniously into the gravel and out of the race. Well, I say out of the race, but in fact he was able to rejoin and continue to circulate at the back of the field, ultimately collecting two points for his efforts as the Honda was clearly not working properly any more. But those two points could really count later in the season...

Midfield, we saw a real scrap taking place between Bautista, Melandri, Capirossi and Spies, with all four riders pushing hard. Bautista eventually came out on top, beating his more experienced team-mate for the first time, with Spies taking a hard fought and well earned sixth place - second in this group - ahead of Loris Capirossi and Nicky Hayden who came from nowhere after a disastrous opening few laps to pip Marco Melandri in the dying moments.

Up at the front, though, Jorge Lorenzo didn't ease up at all, treating us to lap after perfect lap, circulating like some sort of machine and turning in incredibly consistent lap times. He's smooth, fast and very gentle on his tyres, and that shows as his late race performance doesn't really fade. In fact compared to other riders he gets stronger as the race goes on, which reminds me rather of Valentino Rossi, albeit for different reasons. Valentino seems able to just ride through problems, Jorge avoids them. And the result, this time, was a yawning gap of nearly seven seconds back to Pedrosa. Again.

Pedrosa defintely had his work cut out, though, as Casey Stoner really wanted that second podium step. From lap thirteen onwards there was never more than two tenths of a second between them, and often there was a whole lot less than that. But Honda have been working hard and the Ducati no longer has the legs on everything out there. Stoner couldn't rely on horsepower to pass Pedrosa, and the Spaniard wasn't about to make a mistake and leave any doors open. So it was the old elastic band effect all the way round for twelve nail biting laps. It's great to see Pedrosa and Stoner both delivering the form we know they're capable of and actually racing rather than one or other simply clearing off at the front. Now if only we could get Lorenzo to do the same...

So eventually after twenty five laps the chequered flag came out. Jorge Lorenzo, having spent most of the final lap clowning around, won by a reduced margin of just over four seconds from a relieved and thoroughly deserving Dani Pedrosa and a hard charging Caey Stoner. Randy de Puniet finished fourth, fourteen seconds behind Stoner and three seconds ahead of Alvaro Bautista on the first factory Suzuki. Marco Simoncelli had exited, fortunately unhurt, in a spray of broken bodywork earlier, at around the same time as Bautista had caught him. Behind Bautista was Ben Spies, working steadily toward that full factory ride (and the Rookie of the Year award), himself ahead of Loris Capirossi, Nicky Hayden and Marco Melandri. That's a pretty distinguished pack.

As far as the championship is concerned, actually there have been some changes. Not at the top, obviously, where Lorenzo now has sufficient points in hand to sit the next two rounds out completely and still have a lead. Pedrosa's second place is looking increasingly safe as well, though of course anything can happen in motorsport, as we saw a few weeks ago. Dovizioso is covering Pedrosa's back, while Nicky Hayden and Randy de Puniet are now tied in fourth. Casey Stoner is firmly inside the top ten and threatening the others while Rossi now drops to seventh having scored no points for the last few rounds. Ben Spies is inside the top ten, too, ahead of the tied melandri and Simoncelli. But there are still two hundred and seventy five points on offer, so technically the championship remains wide open

Next time we're going to the Sachsenring. Not everyone's favourite circuit, but possibly where Valentino Rossi will make a comeback and either humiliate the opposition or himself...

Catalunya MotoGP Results

1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
3. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
4. Randy de Puniet (Honda)
5. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki)
6. Ben Spies (Yamaha)
7. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)
8. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)
9. Marco Melandri (Honda)
10. Hector Barbera (Ducati)

MotoGP standings (after seven rounds)

1. Jorge Lorenzo 165
2. Dani Pedrosa 113
3. Andrea Dovizioso 91
4. Nicky Hayden 69
5. Randy de Puniet 69
6. Casey Stoner 67
7. Valentino Rossi 61
8. Ben Spies 59
9. Marco Melandri 39
10. Marco Simoncelli 39