Dani Pedrosa rues lack of first-sector pace after defeat in Aragon Grand Prix

Stoner was quickest in two of the three practice sessions, took pole, and won the race by eight seconds - but Pedrosa had generally been within a few tenths of him on Friday and Saturday, and beat him in the opening session.

Though the Spaniard admitted Stoner had been faster, he did not think the gap between them was really as bad as it seemed.

"I tried my best obviously," said Pedrosa. "The whole weekend in the first section I was not too fast, so I always lost a couple of tenths there, and this was enough for Casey to be faster than me. I tried to improve it but I wasn't really able to do it."

It was a processional race at the front of the field, with large gaps between the two Hondas and back to the rest of the pack. Pedrosa said he had at least been entertained by tyre wear making the bike harder to handle.

"Second place is not too bad. Obviously I'd like to win," he said.

"But it was also quite fun because the tyres really dropped down and they were spinning a lot when you were on the edge, so I had a couple of slides but was able to finish second."