Spain's Dani Pedrosa took advantage of a Casey Stoner crash on the warm-up lap to win the Valencia Grand Prix on Sunday, his second victory of the season securing third place in the MotoGP world championship.

Ducati rider Stoner was due to start on pole and was bidding for a third straight win in the final race of the season but was unable to make the start after his error.

Pedrosa's victory at his home race lifted the Honda pilot above the Australian to third in the standings behind compatriot Jorge Lorenzo and champion Valentino Rossi.

Italian Rossi, who clinched his second successive MotoGP title in Malaysia last month, finished second in a sunny Valencia, almost three seconds behind Pedrosa, and Yamaha team mate Lorenzo was third.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.