Casey Stoner of Australia earned his second victory of the season at a dramatic French Grand Prix after Dani Pedrosa of Spain crashed out and fractured his right collarbone.

The Honda rider completed the 28 laps of the 4.185-kilometre Le Mans circuit in 44 minutes, 3.955 seconds to climb to second place in the overall standings, 12 points behind defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo of Spain.

Andrea Dovizioso of Italy finished second, 14.214 seconds behind Stoner.

Multiple world champion Valentino Rossi of Italy came in third to earn his first podium of the season.

Pedrosa initially had the better of polesitter Stoner at the start. But the Australian retook the lead on the second lap before Pedrosa’s crash in a battle for second place.

Stoner opened up a gap of 2.20 seconds on Pedrosa at the halfway stage to pull away and cruise to victory.

Pedrosa got injured on lap 18 after colliding with Marco Simoncelli of Italy.

Simoncelli attempted an audacious move by passing Pedrosa on the outside of a curve, but his motorbike’s rear wheel bumped into the Spaniard’s front wheel. Simoncelli was given a ride-through penalty but managed to finish fifth.

Lorenzo placed fourth to retain the overall lead.

Stoner, the 2007 world champion, was also fined €5,000 for punching French rider Randy De Puniet in the shoulder during the morning warm-up.

In the Moto2 class, Marc Marquez of Spain scored his first points of the season by clinching victory, 1.982 seconds ahead of Japanese rider Yuki Takahashi.

The Suter rider, a 125cc world champion, took the lead just before a few drops of rain landed on the track with five laps to go.

Pole-sitter Stefan Bradl of Germany finished third but still leads the championship, 28 points clear of Julian Simon of Spain. Andrea Iannone of Italy crashed out on the first lap to slip to third place, one point behind Simon.

In the 125cc class, 16-year-old prodigy Maverick Vinales of Spain won his first race in just his fourth career start to end compatriot Nicolas Terol’s perfect start to the season.

Vinales overtook Terol in the last curve of the last lap to stand on his Aprilia motorbike and clench his fists as he crossed the finish line. Despite finishing second, Terol extended his overall lead over Sandro Cortese of Germany to 36 points.