Spanish Yamaha rookie Jorge Lorenzo won Sunday's Portuguese MotoGP, beating compatriot Dani Pedrosa of Honda and Italian star Valentino Rossi at the Estoril circuit outside Lisbon on Sunday.
Double 250cc champion Lorenzo, carving out a burgeoning reputation in the top class category having Saturday bagged his third straight pole in setting a new lap record of 1min 35.715sec, gleefully sank to his knees to salute a sizeable Spanish contingent after a maiden career triumph.
He has yet to finish off the podium.
Lorenzo was quickly out of the blocks to shrug off Rossi's early attack on Pedrosa, who slipped briefly out of the podium placings as the rain began to fall
After the fierce jockeying between the front trio in the opening dozen laps an exciting attack by Lorenzo saw him edge ahead by less than half a second with 16 laps to go coming out of the strait.
He swiftly pushed that lead out to 1sec as Rossi struggled fully to maintain his impetus, allowing Pedrosa back into second as the Italian fell five seconds back off the pace.
Another Italian, Andrea Dovizioso, looked set to challenge for the podium before a fall on the 16th lap.
Result from the Portuguese Grand Prix MotoGP race in Estoril
1 J Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha 45 mins 53.089 secs
2 D Pedrosa (Spain) Honda 45:54.906
3 V Rossi (Italy) Yamaha 46:05.812
4 C Edwards (U.S.) Yamaha 46:10.312
5 J Hopkins (U.S.) Kawasaki 46:16.841
6 C Stoner (Australia) Ducati 46:19.777
7 J Toseland (Britain) Yamaha 46:25.720
8 C Vermeulen (Australia) Suzuki 46:29.471
9 L Capirossi (Italy) Suzuki 46:31.357
10 S Nakano (Japan) Honda 46:32.565
MotoGP standings after the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril
1 J Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha 61 points
2 D Pedrosa (Spain) Honda 61
3 V Rossi (Italy) Yamaha 47
4 C Stoner (Australia) Ducati 40
5 J Toseland (Britain) Yamaha 29
6 L Capirossi (Italy) Suzuki 26
7 J Hopkins (U.S.) Kawasaki 24
8 C Edwards (U.S.) Yamaha 22
9 A Dovizioso (Italy) Honda 21
10 N Hayden (U.S.) Honda 19
11 S Nakano (Japan) Honda 16
12 C Vermeulen (Australia) Suzuki 14
13 M Melandri (Italy) Ducati 12
14 R de Puniet (France) Honda 8
15 A de Angelis (San Marino) Honda 7
16 T Elias (Spain) Ducati 7
17 A West (Australia) Kawasaki 3
18 S Guintoli (France) Ducati 3
