Alistair Brownlee thought younger brother Jonny would finally get one over on him before surging to victory in the World Triathlon Series event in Leeds.

The Brownlees were over a minute clear of the rest of the field after a commanding bike ride together and it was Alistair who pulled away from his sibling in a repeat one-two result of last year's inaugural staging of the race in the pair's home city.

Roared on by tens of thousands of people lining the streets, the 29-year-old came home in one hour, 46 minutes and 51 seconds following the 1.5-kilometre swim at Roundhay Park and 38.6km bike ride and 10km run in the city centre. He crossed the line 12 seconds ahead of Jonny.

Alistair had skipped the first three races of the season, opting to turn his attention towards 'Ironman' events since retaining his Olympic triathlon title last year, but he was once again able to consign Jonny to runner-up.

He said: "I'm really, really happy, it's obviously very special to be in my home race and it's very special to win as well. I've kind of had a slow year so it's nice to know that there's something still there.

"I was kind of surprised at how good I felt, I even felt like I was speeding up on those last few laps. I didn't really go into it with any preconceived ideas.

"When I got on the run I thought I was going to struggle to beat Jonny, he was making me hurt on that first lap but I got the gap at the end and I was pleased to do so."

Alistair plans to compete at September's 70.3 'Ironman' World Championship – the half 'Ironman' distance – having already qualified.

As for when he may next compete alongside his brother, he was rather more coy, adding: "I'm not entirely sure what's next.

"I've got a big goal that's the half World Championship at the back end of the year but we'll see. It's been nice to not have too many goals set after so many years, a decade, of doing World Series and Olympics. It's quite nice not to have a next race on the horizon."

Olympic silver medallist Jonny was once more left in his brother's shadow, although the 27-year-old at least bounced back from a disappointing result in Yokohama last month, when he crashed his bike before finishing 42nd.

Jonny, who missed the first two races of the season, said: "A part of me goes, 'Oh here we go again'. But at the same time I'm pleased with my result, I've not had the best of seasons training-wise so I'm pleased to finally have a result.

"The first lap I actually felt like I had him, I was feeling really good, I thought, 'He's suffering here and I'm running easy'. But then the bits of training that I've missed over the past few months, that's not the way to race a race if you've missed a lot of training.

"I'd love to beat him next year, I said this exactly 12 months ago and during the Olympics I said that again, sometime in my time."

Spain's Fernando Alarza finished third to go to the top of the series standings, while Adam Bowden and Thomas Bishop came fourth and fifth respectively, giving Britain four of the top five finishers.

The women's race was won by reigning world champion Flora Duffy of Bermuda ahead of America's Taylor Spivey and Italy's Alice Betto, while Britain's Jessica Learmonth and an off-colour Non Stanford finished sixth and 11th respectively.

Learmonth led after the swimming leg but dropped back into the chasing pack on the bike to help team-mate Stanford, and eventually finished just over four minutes adrift of the winner, still a personal best in the World Series for the 29-year-old.

She said: "I'm really happy with that result and how it went."

Stanford has been battling illness since the Yokohama leg of the series and admitted if the race had been anywhere else in the world she would have been likely to have withdrawn.

She said: "It was a struggle from start to finish.

"I'm just gutted Jess sacrificed the race for me. If it was any other race I probably wouldn't have put myself on that start line but it's Leeds and it's a special race. I know it's a cliche but the crowds absolutely got me round."