Pedrosa rues costly tyre problems

The Laguna Seca winner burst through from eighth on the grid to second at the start, then ran with the leaders for much of the race, but struggled to join Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo battle for victory and had to settle for third.

"The start was very good," Pedrosa told the BBC. "At the first corner I braked very late and I almost crashed, but I made second place, so this was already half the job done for the race.

"At the beginning when I was behind Rossi I was comfortable, but immediately I started to lose my front tyre and in fact in the last corner I almost crashed once. Then I started to realise that with so many laps to go, I could crash at any corner, so I started to be slower.

"[Casey] Stoner and Lorenzo passed me and I was going backwards. But as I got more slow, suddenly the front tyre got better. I started to push again. I passed Stoner, but after I pushed for four or five laps, I was losing the front again."

He admitted that third place was frustrating as he felt only his tyre issue had held him back - after he acknowledged that he had still fared far better than team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, who had to pull out as his rubber disintegrated.

"It's a shame because I was close to the Yamahas and I think we were ready to fight with them today," said Pedrosa.

"But on the other hand my team-mate looks like he had the same problem but much worse than me and he had to retire, so I'm happy we had a podium."