In a dramatic race hit by torrential rain and a raft of crashes, Repsol Honda Team’s Dani Pedrosa put in a wet-weather master class to win the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix in Sepang.

Pedrosa finished ahead of Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo and Australian Casey Stoner.

The result has moved Pedrosa 23 points behind Lorenzo in the title chase with two rounds remaining.

In a race that was declared wet from the start, Lorenzo opted for the softer option wet rear tyre and had a small margin over Pedrosa with 18 laps to go, but it was not enough to ward off Pedrosa, who passed him soon after and raced on to the win.

The rain came down extremely heavily with 15 laps left, and Lorenzo suffered a very scary moment, where he saved a near crash just seconds before the red flag was shown due to safety concerns.

After much deliberating, conditions deteriorated, and the win was awarded to Pedrosa, with Lorenzo and Stoner completing the rostrum.

Ducati duo Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi finished fourth and fifth, with the latter making up all of his ground at the start after a brilliant launch, making it into Turn 1 fourth. Despite dropping back for a small period, he fought back to fifth with skill and luck as others around him fell by the wayside.

Of the casualties in the wet race, Yamaha’s Ben Spies suffered a heavy crash out of 10th place. He was taken to the medical centre to check on a shoulder injury.

Tech 3 Yamaha’s Andrea Dovizioso slid out of the race, Cal Crutchlow crashed on Lap 9, Stefan Bradl lost the front end of his satellite Honda while NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards retired with a mechanical gremlin.

The next round of the championship is at Phillip Island for the Australian MotoGP.

Results, Malaysian Grand Prix

Championship standings