Rossi happy, but hoped for better pace

Rossi and Hayden's dice for third was only resolved with a last-lap pass by the Yamaha rider, who had fought through from ninth place early on.

But Rossi, who had been off the pace throughout practice and qualifying, conceded that he had hoped for better this weekend - especially having returned to winning ways in Malaysia a week earlier.

"A podium is okay, especially when you start from the third row," said Rossi.

"But I expected to be a little bit faster during the race. But I had some problems - my set-up was not perfect, we were struggling too much during practice."

He said he still took huge satisfaction from his tussle with future Ducati team-mate Hayden.

"At the end with Nicky it was difficult because I stayed in front for a big part of the race," Rossi said. "I tried to push, but Nicky always came back at me.

"He made his attack with two or three laps to go, so we had to fight on the last lap. It was fun, and I'm so happy with the podium."