Pedrosa ready for fight for third

Casey Stoner’s victory in the Iveco Australian Grand Prix handed the Ducati Marlboro rider third place in the World Championship standings at the expense of Dani Pedrosa, but the Repsol Honda man is determined to regain that spot this weekend at Sepang.

A third consecutive podium for Pedrosa delivered third place in Australia, and with two races remaining the gap to Stoner in the standings is only six points.

“I pushed my hardest to try to be faster but they were fast,” said Pedrosa of race winner Stoner and second-placed Valentino Rossi. “The pace was incredible; much quicker than in practice, and I was not able to follow. Unfortunately this was a disappointing point for me, but I finished third in qualifying practice when I had a crash so that’s good. I’ll just try to improve for the next race.”

As the penultimate outing of the season Pedrosa knows how pivotal the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix will prove in deciding the final standings.

“We are riding not so bad at some tracks, so I hope we can improve our performance. Stoner is riding superbly, so I’ll try to do my best and we will see because there are still two races to go,” he added.