Sepang MotoGP Reaction: Dani Pedrosa surprised at Sepang speed

Triple world champion Dani Pedrosa said he was surprised he could pose such a serious threat to Casey Stoner and Marco Melandri after he claimed only his second podium finish in the last seven races in Malaysia.

The Spaniard hailed the performance of his Michelin tyres as his pre-race fears about endurance were quickly banished.

Pedrosa produced a rousing start to the 21-lap race, as he made sure that Casey Stoner wasn’t going to be able to pull away and dominate like in previous races recently.

Pedrosa was still only 0.276s adrift of the Australian after seven laps before he surrendered second place to a hard-charging Marco Melandri two laps later.

He was never able to recover to reclaim second but unlike in previous races, his Michelin tyres remained consistent throughout and he didn’t quickly drop back like in Phillip Island. At the finish he was only 0.6s behind Melandri as he comfortably fended of factory Kawasaki rider Randy de Puniet to claim the last place on the podium. In doing so he kept alive his faint hopes of stealing second place in the championship from Valentino Rossi. The Italian was fifth and Pedrosa goes into the final round in Valencia early next month trailing Rossi by 24-points. Pedrosa will have to claim only his second win of the season on home soil and hope Rossi fails to finish to secure second behind runaway world champion Stoner.

The Repsol Honda rider said:” I pushed very hard at the beginning because I knew we had so many tyre problems over the weekend. So I tried to make a gap at the beginning and then try to handle the situation as well as possible. I was quite confident behind Casey, then he changed the rhythm and I started braking later and I struggled a bit while braking in a straight line. I was losing the front, so I lost the gap and then Marco passed me. After that I tried to keep my rhythm. As the race went on I got a better feeling from the front in braking. I was really surprised by the pace; we didn’t expect it after practice. I must say thank you to Michelin, we struggled but at the end we got a podium.”

Pedrosa said the situation of the tyres had been ‘strange’ as he revealed he ran a new spec Michelin rear for the first time in a race.

 “It’s a little strange because at Phillip Island in practice we were feeling good but we went backwards in the race. This race was completely the opposite. We were struggling a lot but in the race we were surprised by the lap times. We used some new things in the tyres but not big changes so we must keep moving in this direction and try to find the way, “said Pedrosa.