Jorge Lorenzo was a start-to-finish winner of his home race at the Caཧtalunya MotoGP as the reigning champion clawed back ground at the top of the 2013 standings.

Fac𓄧tory Yamaha star Lorenzo shot into the lead at the first corner, edging ahead of Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa and controlled the race from th🌳e front to win by 1.763 seconds for his third victory of the season.

Pedrosa held of❀f a fearsome attack fr𓆏om team-mate Marc Marquez in the closing laps to narrowly claim the runner-up spot with Valentino Rossi finishing in a lonely fourth.

Lorenzo has reduced the gap to Pedrosa at the top of the championship to seven points after six rounds, with Marquez a further 23 points in a🐠rrears.

A number of high-profile contenders crashed out, including Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow, D🦩ucati's Nicky Hayden and Alvaro Bautista on the Gresini Honda.

Crutchlow was holding fourth place - 1.3s behind Lorenz💫o - when he went down at Turn 7.

The Bri𒉰tish rider's team-mate, series rookie Bradley Smith, overhauled Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso in the closing stages to claim his best result to date with a brilliant ride to sixth.

Lorenzo, who started from third place on the grid, blasted into the lead ꦚfrom pole man Pedrosa in a sprint to the first corner with Marquez slotting into third a🐻head of Crutchlow and Rossi.

Bautista was a first lap casualty as he attempted to overtake Rossi - whom he tangled with on the first lap of the previous Mugello round - losing the front 💫end at Turn 10 and narrowly avoiding colliding with the Italian's M1 as he slid into the gravel.

Hayden was making goཧod progress in the early stages and the American forced his way past Andrea Iannone on the Pramac machine to take seventh behind Stefan Bradl as L🃏orenzo continued to lead from Pedrosa, Marquez, Crutchlow and Rossi.

However, Hayden was also caught out at Turn 10, losing the front of his Desmosedici and sliding out of sixth place after the former world cha🐻mpion had passed🔴 Bradl.

Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Marquez began to pull away from Rossi, who in turn๊ had daylight between himself and Bradl in fifth place with Dovizi♓oso and Smith the first seven.

There was no change at the fron🦂t with 10 laps remaining as Lorenzo held an advantage of only 0.387s over Pe🎐drosa with Marquez still in touch.

Rossi was holding a lonely fourth, around four and a half seconds down on the leading grou𓄧p, with Bradl fifth ahead of Dovizioso, Smith and Aleix Espargaro on💖 the Power Electronics Aspar.

Pedrosa, though, began to drop back slightly as Lorenzo opened an advantage o♍f 0.5s with eight lꩵaps to go.

Lorenzo started t𝓰o turn the screw, lapping in 1m 43.339s with seven laps remaining to increase his lead to 0.877s over Pedrosa as Marquez c♏losed in on his team-mate.

At the end of the🃏 19th lap Lorenzo's lead was now one second, with Pe🍨drosa coming under pressure from Marquez.

The two Repsol Ho🦂nda riders became embroiled in a thrilling battle as Lor💖enzo cemented his position at the front.

Marquez was looking increasingly threatening and attempted to slip underneath Pedrosa on the brakes on the penultimate lap, but the young Spaniard lost a few tenths of a second as his RC213V𝔉 almost pitched him off under heavy braking as Pedrosa closed the door.

Maಌrquez, thouꦰgh, clawed back the deficit to challenge Pedrosa again on the final lap but the championship leader kept his nose in front to hold on for second place.

Rossi took fourth ahead ♈of Brad𓆏l, followed by Smith and Dovizioso.

Espargaro, Co𒐪lin Edwards (Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki♉) and Michele Pirro on the Ignite Pramac Ducati completed the top ten.

Northern Ireland's Mich🃏ael Laverty was a faller on lap one afteꦿr running into the gravel trap at Turn 10, with Randy de Puniet, Andrea Iannone and Karel Abraham also failing to finish.

Catalunya MotoGP:
1. Jorge Lorenzo
2. Dani Pedrosa
3. Marc Marquez
4. Valentino Rossi
5. Stefan Bradl
6. Bradley Smith
7. Andrea Dovizioso
8. Aleix Espargaro
9. Colin Edwards
10. Michele Pirro
11. Danilo Petrucci
12. Claudio Corti
13. Yonny Hernandez
14. Bryan Staring
15. Javier del Amor
16. Lukas Pesek
Hector Barbera
Karel Abraham
Cal Crutchlow
Randy De Puniet
Nicky Hayden
Andrea Iannone
Alvaro Bautista
Michael Laverty

Don't miss out! The next round of the 2013 MotoGP World Championship takes place at Assen on June 27-29 - to see ticket prices from the Official MotoGP Ticket Store.