Stoner impressed by Pedrosa's wet pace

Pedrosa dominated the open laps in the rain at the Sachsenring, and was leading by seven seconds after just six laps, only to crash out and hand Stoner a third straight victory.

"I saw Dani riding off into the distance and I thought 'fair play,'" said Stoner.

"There was no way I was going to go that fast in those conditions at that time. We definitely needed a few more laps for the tyres to warm up and come up to temperature, but Dani just kept riding away from us and there was no way I was going to keep up."

Stoner reckoned Pedrosa's crash proved that ultimately he was pushing too hard for the conditions, but still paid tribute to the Spaniard's performance.

"Then as I was going down the main straight I saw his bike tumbling and bouncing and saw him in the gravel trap, so obviously he just went that little bit too much," he said.

"But considering Dani's past record in the wet, I thought he was riding very, very well and it was very impressive."

The champion, who is now only 20 points new series leader Valentino Rossi, said he had many scares of his own in the remaining laps.

"From then on, it was a matter of getting a small advantage each lap and not making any mistakes," said Stoner.

"We had to run a harder compound rear tyre and we kept having a lot of 'loses', just small ones here and there, so I was a little bit nervous going around for most of the race.

"But I just managed to keep it up, which was the most important thing. Big thanks to the team for everything they've done for me this weekend, and it's nice to close the championship down a little more."