Motorcycling: Dominant Stoner claims his second win of the season

Casey Stoner produced a dominant display to claim his second victory of the season in an incident-packed French MotoGP yesterday. Stoner stayed clear of the action behind him to storm home by more than 14 seconds and move up to second place in the riders' standings.

The news was not so good for Stoner's Repsol Honda team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, who suffered a suspected broken collarbone after crashing out following a coming together with Marco Simoncelli. The incident, which came after Pedrosa had briefly raced ahead of pole-sitter Stoner, resulted in Simoncelli, who ended fifth, being handed a ride-through penalty for an "illegal manoeuvre".

That set the stage for an enthralling battle for second between Italian duo Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi, with the latter having to be content with third place albeit his first podium since his move to Ducati. Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo crossed the line in fourth to keep hold of his championship lead, with Stoner 12 points adrift.

"It's been an awesome weekend and everything has been amazing," said Stoner, who also won the season-opener in Qatar. "I'm really looking forward to the next race now."

Pedrosa's injury could rule him out of his home race in Barcelona in the next round on 5 June and undermine his championship bid after sliding to third after today's race.

The Spaniard only last month required surgery on a similar injury before returning to win the previous round in Portugal.