Pedrosa goal to beat Stoner to third

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa is on a good run of form at present with three podiums in the last three races and still in third place in the championship after finishing third at Estoril behind Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner – and in front of World Champion Valentino Rossi.

The Spanish star is motivated by the happy reappearance of Stoner in MotoGP and with the Australian moving up to three points behind him in the classification on Sunday the battle for third is well and truly on.

Reviewing the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal, Pedrosa commented, “I made a very good start today and held the lead until the third corner where I ran a little wide and Jorge came by. He was pushing really hard in the first few laps and even though I was too, I couldn’t match his rhythm as he opened up a gap.”

He added, “When Casey came past I tried to stay with him and was able to put some pressure on and maintain a good pace. I had a moment though where the bike was snaking as I braked, I ran wide and I nearly crashed - that cost me some time and opened up the gap to Casey.”

Putting the championship battle for third into perspective Pedrosa stated, “It definitely will now be an interesting fight for third place in the championship with Casey. He is the reference in Australia and so the next race is going to be hard fought - I’m looking forward to it. I definitely want to win at least one of the three races left and maybe the next one is the most important.”