Sepang MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa struggles on soft tyre

Dani Pedrosa admitted he didn’t get the maximum performance out of the softer compound Bridgestone rear tyre in qualifying today as he had to settle for third place on the grid for tomorrow’s 21-lap Malaysian GP. 

Pedrosa was fastest in this morning’s second practice session but was unable to continue that form as temperatures and humidity rocketed in Sepang for this afternoon’s decisive qualifying session.

And Pedrosa left it late to score his ninth front row start of the campaign, a last lap of 2.01.254 relegating Aussie Casey Stoner to fourth.

Pedrosa said: “This morning we did a great job. Unfortunately in the afternoon I was not very fast at the end of the practice with the softer tyre. I was not feeling very comfortable so I was not improving my lap times.

“And especially with the last one I lost a lot of time, because in the first lap I had to stop for traffic. Then in the second lap when I really started pushing I made a mistake and ran off track. I just had one more lap and I pushed hard and I got onto the front row, so that’s important.”