Pedrosa surprised by his race pace

The Spaniard had secured his third consecutive pole position at Sepang, but was not optimistic after qualifying as his Repsol Honda's Michelins had proved inferior to the Bridgestones in practice.

He had also fallen from first to fourth as he lost tyre grip in the Australian MotoGP a week earlier.

"We were struggling all the weekend with the tyres, especially on the front," Pedrosa said.

"I was just pushing to the maximum at the beginning of the race because I knew the tyres would drop down. So I tried to do my best rhythm possible.

"At the beginning I had so many problems with braking, so I tried to be more relaxed under braking, but after the petrol came down I started to feel more confident and I tried to improve my lap time.

"All the time I was surprised by my lap time and by my rhythm, so I'm very happy about that - not so much about the third place, but we didn't expect it, so it's good for us."

Pedrosa briefly inched ahead of leader Casey Stoner on the opening lap after the Ducati ran wide at the final corner, but the champion was able to accelerate back in front on the exit of the turn.

Although Marco Melandri later passed Pedrosa for second, the Spaniard stayed in touch with the lead battle and ultimately finished just two seconds behind Stoner.

With Valentino Rossi only finishing fifth, Pedrosa still has a slim chance of taking second in the championship in the season finale at Valencia. He will go into the race 24 points behind the Italian, so could grab the runner-up spot if he wins and Rossi fails to score.