Dani Pedrosa says errant set-up change kept him out of Misano lead fight

The Spaniard had been in the thick of the battle with his team-mate Casey Stoner and Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo all weekend, but could not match their pace in the race.

Only when Stoner faded in the closing stages was Pedrosa able to move into second place.

"Unfortunately we didn't get the perfect set-up," Pedrosa admitted. "Yesterday the bike was working better. We tried to improve it but it didn't work.

"From the first lap I saw I couldn't push. I had a lot of front closing so I wasn't able to force the bike on the entry of the corners, so then I started to lose the pace. So I was off the pace for almost the whole race.

"But at the end I could catch Casey on the last laps and get second place so I'm very happy.

"Also we were lucky with the rain. At the beginning of the race there was some spray but we were good with the pace."

Despite his disappointment at not being in the lead fight today, Pedrosa felt that being able to take second in a poor race promised much for the rest of his season.

"The bike was not perfect but even so we were able to finish second," he said. "Hopefully we can stay like this and get some more good results to the end of the season."