Dani Pedrosa amazed to end up second in Qatar MotoGP race after troubled build-up

Mistakes, mechanical issues and a loss of confidence during practice and qualifying left the Spaniard only seventh on the grid, five places behind his Honda team-mate Casey Stoner.

But a rapid start saw Pedrosa surge up to second, and although he lost that place to Stoner after a few laps, he stayed in a three-way lead group with the Australian and eventual winner Jorge Lorenzo, and was ultimately able to reclaim second from his team-mate.

"This weekend we had many, many issues on the bike for myself. Finally yesterday we had a horrible qualifying," said Pedrosa.

"This morning already in the warm-up everything went back to normal and we were able to do a good race and good lap times.

"The start was key for me, I could start well. Then I was doing the race in third position, trying not to give away too much of a gap [to the leaders]."

Long-time leader Stoner fell off the pace with an arm issue in the closing laps and came under attack from Lorenzo and Pedrosa. The latter reckoned that if he had timed his pass on Stoner better, it would have been him, not Lorenzo, celebrating victory.

"At the end there was some problem with Casey - he started to slow down a bit and Jorge and I started to catch up," Pedrosa said.

"At the end Jorge was a little smarter when he decided to pass Casey. I got stuck there with Casey for one lap.

"But second place is unbelievable after all the problems. Unfortunately it was not the win - it was there for me. But I have to thank the team."