Lorenzo triumphs in Estoril, Rossi loses ground in the standings

AFP - Spain's Jorge Lorenzo, riding a Yamaha, moved to within 18 points of Moto GP championship leader Valentino Rossi after winning the Portuguese Grand Prix here on Sunday.

Australian Casey Stoner and another Spaniard, Dani Pedrosa, finished second and third respectively.

Lorenzo's fourth win of the season means he has closed the gap to Rossi, his teammate at Yamaha, to only 18 points.

Lorenzo overcame the early surges of Pedrosa to take control of the race on the first lap and went on to lead almost from start to finish, with Rossi coming in fourth.

Stoner, the 2007 world champion, back on the track after missing three races because of a mystery virus, kept Lorenzo's Yamaha within his sights and the Australian did well to hold on for a deserved runner-up place.

Eight-time world champion Rossi was over 20secs behind the pace of Lorenzo and the Italian is likely to consider his ride a failure having managed to finish on the podium here in all nine of his previous visits to Estoril.