Winning Aragon fight with Rossi a MotoGP highlight, says Pedrosa

Honda rider Pedrosa admitted that close racing has been "a weakness" of his, but in Spain last Sunday he denied championship leader and seven-time champion Rossi after a ferocious dice in which they swapped places multiple times.

"It is surely one of the best battles because of the rival," said Pedrosa.

"You can have a good battle with many riders, but Valentino is the master of these situations.

"Normally he's so comfortable in those moments and he has so much confidence.

"He can play a lot with the bike, try different lines, change braking points and apex points.

"He's super-comfortable at that and it's one of my weakest points. So I'm really happy about that achievement.

"I could hear his engine all the time, he was so close.

"I didn't really know where his strong point was, but I could see he was ready for a fight.

"He actually attacked me with many laps to go, but I knew I had to fight with him.

"I was able to make good moves. I had good control of the bike even though I wasn't the fastest, so I could change lines and when he passed I could attack back.

"At some places I could feel I was slower than him, but at others he surprised me because he attacked where I didn't expect.

"When I saw the one-lap board I said I had to hold on in second place, because after all this fight with him it's not good to finish third."

Rossi said he gave everything he had to try to deny Pedrosa the runner-up spot and limit the points loss to his race-winning title rival and Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.

"At the end I played all the cards that I had, and one extra that I didn't expect," he said.

"The last chicane is not a place to overtake, but it was my last chance, so I tried.

"For one moment I thought I could stay on the line, but Dani overtook me another time.

"It was a great battle. It was not enough. Dani was simply stronger than me.

"It's a shame because for the championship those points are important. But I tried."

Pedrosa has not won since Brno last August and missed several early-2015 races while undergoing experimental surgery to tackle a persistent arm pump problem.

He admitted that the Aragon track layout had helped him from a fitness perspective as his arm remained troublesome.

"It's more left corners so my right arm is more relaxed than normally," he said.

"But also when you have no pain, your brain is more in gear. You're more focused on what you're doing, not how you're feeling."