Dani Pedrosa, who has won two MotoGP races a season ever since his 2006 debut, took arguably his best premier-class win with his second victory of 2010 at Sachsenring in Germany on Sunday.
World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo had won all three races since Pedrosa and Honda's first win of the season at round four in Mugello.
But Pedrosa was a match for the pole sitter during the first part of the race - up to the red flag on lap 10, following a multi-rider accident for Randy de Puniet, Aleix Espargaro and Alvaro Bautista - then picked up where he'd left off by hounding Lorenzo after the restart.
Pedrosa made his victory pass stick at his second attempt, into turn one on lap 10 of 21, then edged away to a 3.3sec victory.
“I'm very happy because we are back winning races and it's a great feeling," began Pedrosa. "It wasn't easy today because when the race is stopped and restarted like that, sometimes you don't have the same feeling on the machine in the second part. Also you get nervous again on the grid and it's possible you won't have the same pace after the restart. But it went very well for us in both races.
"In the first one I was very close to Lorenzo and the pace was good, but then they stopped the race and we looked at each other saying, 'Why?'
"It was even better in the second part. We just made one small change with the rear suspension to get a bit more traction, but we didn't change the tyre because we didn't have any new tyres left - we went with the same ones.
"I made another good start and in the first laps after Lorenzo had passed me I was pushing very to try to take him back. I couldn't do it with my first attempt, but when I got a second chance I just went for it. Then it was a great feeling to stretch ahead and get the victory - the team deserve it.
"This victory is even better than the one in Italy because at Mugello I just went away in front and there was no battle with anybody, but here I was battling with Lorenzo in the first and second race, and finally beat him, so this is even more important.
"Also before the race we were not 100 per cent sure about what the weather would do, but it stayed clear and finally the weekend has ended perfectly. I was really looking forward to wear the Spain shirt on the podium.
"It was difficult to get it because it wasn't in the shops and I really wanted to celebrate a win like that. I also want to thank the team because they worked really well this weekend, the bike was very good from Friday onwards and this is the form we need so we can to keep this consistency going from now on.”
Pedrosa has taken five points out of Lorenzo's title lead, but is still 47 behind heading into next weekend's Laguna Seca round - a race Pedrosa won last season.
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