CASEY Stoner took his fourth race win of the season and the lead in the MotoGP World Championship after title rival Jorge Lorenzo crashed out in the rain at Silverstone.

Repsol Honda rider Stoner rode an almost faultless race from pole position to take his third successive win and now leads defending champion Lorenzo by 18 points in the championship standings.

Stoner was beaten into the first corner by Lorenzo but the factory Yamaha rider was passed by both the Australian and his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso on the first lap.

Lorenzo also lost a place to San Carlo Gresini Honda rider Marco Simoncelli but gained that back when the Italian went wide and dropped to fourth.

Lorenzo was running between Dovizioso and Simoncelli as the three battled for second place when the Spaniard’s race came to an end as he was thrown over the handlebars.

Stoner was setting up a commanding lead and left Dovizioso and Simoncelli to battle for second spot.

Simoncelli’s demise promoted Colin Edwards to third just over a week after the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider had surgery to repair a broken collarbone, the same injury suffered by Edwards’ British team-mate Cal Crutchlow when he crashed of the qualifying session at Silverstone.

Fourth went to the factory Ducati of Nicky Hayden and fifth to Rizla Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista. The bad luck of other riders worked in favour of multiple world champion Valentino Rossi who struggled to a lowly 13th in qualifying.

He used the conditions to his advantage as he climbed his way through the pack to finish sixth on the other factory Ducati.

􀁧 Audi produced a dream end to a tough weekend as their sole surviving car powered to victory at the 79th Le Mans 24 Hour race.

After the R18 TDIs of Allan McNish and Mike Rockenfeller were involved in two massive shunts in the opening eight hours of the race, the sister car of Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer fended off Peugeot’s stern challenge to secure the team’s 10th win at this event in the past 12 years.

The German manufacturer has rarely been out of the spotlight at Circuit de la Sarthe at the weekend, but come the climax they could at least claim to be there for all the right reasons.

After 24 hours of gripping action, it fell to Lotterer to take the number two car across the line – having completed 355 laps – some 14 seconds ahead of the number nine Peugeot of Sebastien Bourdais, Simon Pagenaud and Pedro Lamy.