Pedrosa gutted after Laguna crash

The Honda rider made a superb getaway to rocket into the lead at the start and had pulled out a lead of more than a second when he lost the front end of his machine at the uphill Turn Five and slid into the gravel.

"At the time I that I crashed I was pushing hard to maintain the gap to Lorenzo and my rhythm was good," said the Spaniard.

"Unfortunately though I hit a bump on the way into the corner and I couldn't do anything - I was down. I'm very, very disappointed obviously, but this can happen when you're trying everything to win.

"You have to push as much as you can and take risks - and I really wanted to win this race."

Pedrosa's accident dropped him 72 points behind Lorenzo in the fight for the World Championship and means he is only now 23 ahead of his Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.

However, he has not given up hope of winning Honda's first riders' World Championship since 2006 and believes that the next race in the Czech Republic will provide another chance for victory.

"The one thing we can do now is to remember that we were having a good race until this moment, and we were leading the race - this is what I want to take from the weekend," he added.

"You cannot sit there with your arms crossed thinking about what could have been. For the whole weekend me and the team were working well and we put ourselves in a winning position. It hasn't worked out for us but we'll come back fighting at the next one."