Casey Stoner handed the initiative in the MotoGP championship to Jorge Lorenzo, crashing on the last lap of the German Grand Prix at Sachsenring as his Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa claimed his first win of the season.
The defending champion looked to have second place wrapped up and was pushing for the lead when he slid off the track with only a handful of corners to go.
Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory) came through to take second instead and establish a 14-point lead at the top of the standings, with Andrea Dovizioso (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) completing the podium.
Stoner dropped 20 points off the pace in the championship, with Pedrosa moving ahead of him into second spot.
Australian Stoner started the race on pole, but Pedrosa, starting from third, passed his team-mate to lead going into turn one.
Stoner soon hit the front again, though, and the pair continued to battle for the lead, while Ben Spies, who started from second on the grid, ran wide to let his team-mate Lorenzo into third place.
The Repsol Honda pair pulled further clear from the Spaniard as he tried to chase them down, but their thrilling neck-and-neck battle for the lead proved costly for Stoner as he crashed out.
Lorenzo, who had been well clear in third, followed Pedrosa home, while Dovizioso, who had made it past Spies, was next across the line.
Spies was fourth, with Stefan Bradl fifth, Valentino Rossi sixth and Alvaro Bautista, Cal Crutchlow, Hector Barbera and Nicky Hayden completing the top 10.Lorenzo and Stoner went into the weekend tied for the championship lead after the Spaniard
was taken out at the first corner at Assen last weekend and the Australian won.
And the Yamaha rider was grateful for the turnaround in fortunes today.
He told BBC Sport: "Things can change completely in two races.
"At Assen we have zero points and were very disappointed but then we have luck from Casey's crash today. I would have been happy to finish third as the bike was not so good, but we were lucky."
