Pedrosa hails "perfect" victory

The Spaniard's Honda led from start to finish and recorded an amazing sequence of 1m49s laptimes to break any resistance he was expecting from Yamaha rival Jorge Lorenzo.

"It was really perfect," said Pedrosa. "We had a very good bike on track and improved a lot since Saturday. I'm very happy we finally got a good result after some disappointing last laps in the previous grands prix. My team-mate also did a good job to finish third.

"We had a tough time in the winter, in the tests everything was very hard we didn't see the good way until some weeks ago, but it looks like we've come back a little bit and I hope we can stay there and keep this pace.

"I'm delighted. I think the team deserves victory. I'd like to thanks all the fans here, who were pushing for Vale [Rossi]. He is having a hard time, as everybody in the paddock knows."

His team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was similarly delighted with his first MotoGP podium at his home track, chasing Lorenzo home in third.

"I wanted to finish in front of Lorenzo, which would have been really nice, but unfortunately I couldn't catch him on the last lap," he said. "I recovered the gap but not enough to overtake him. Dani made a really good race, which shows we can go faster, and a podium is good for me in the championship."