Pedrosa praises Stoner form

Dani Pedrosa has praised former world 250 championship rival Casey Stoner following the Australian’s storming start to his Ducati MotoGP career.

Pedrosa and Stoner are long term rivals having faced each other in the 125 and 250 world championships, where the Spaniard has always held sway over his Aussie rival.

Stoner though is dominating Pedrosa in MotoGP and the 21-year-old has now won more premier classes in the opening four races of 2007 than Pedrosa has done in 21 attempts for Honda.

The Spaniard already trails Stoner by 37-points and following his fourth place in Shanghai, he finally broke his silence and criticised Honda for the first time in public for the poor performance of its new RC212V contender.

“Honda is in big trouble,” said Pedrosa after the China clash, though paid tribute to the brilliant form of Stoner.

“Casey in a great moment at the moment and he is riding very well. The package of the bike and tyres is working very well but Casey is also riding very well,” said the triple world champion.