Pedrosa happy with wet podium

Second place at Sepang for the second year in a row – his fourth podium in as many MotoGP seasons at the track – was the result of some hard work from Dani Pedrosa in preparing for wet weather conditions.

At the rain-soaked Malaysian circuit, Pedrosa overcame the kind of weather setting that has previously proven hard for him to deal with to finish second, behind Casey Stoner and in front of Valentino Rossi.

It was a result that particularly pleased the Spaniard, who had worked specifically on improving his ability to deal with such a scenario, one which ended team-mate Andrea Dovizioso’s race after 14 laps when the Italian slid off.

“Riding in the rain has always been one of my weakest points and so for a long time I have tried to improve this by working hard and going over my limit in the wet,” he explained. “This hasn’t been an easy process, but now, finally, I achieved a podium in the wet so I’m really happy and I want to thank all the people who have helped in this process.”

Pedrosa continued, “In the middle of the race Andrea was just behind and he was closing and was putting some pressure on me, but I was riding well and I was able to keep my focus and concentration. Finally when Andrea went off, another rider was coming and this time it was Valentino. He was going quite a lot faster than me, but in the last laps I kept my pace and was able to finish in second place. I’m very happy today.”

Pedrosa also lauded Rossi’s achievement of securing a ninth World Championship title across all classes with his podium finish.

“I also want to congratulate Valentino on the World Championship – nine titles is amazing,” added Pedrosa. “Now we go to Valencia and we’ll be trying hard again there. It’s a track that I love and there will be a lot of fans too, so I’m looking forward to it.”