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Repsol Honda celebrates another podium

Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa rode a gutsy race in today's Italian Grand Prix, battling back and forth with reigning World Champion Casey Stoner and eventually finishing third aboard his RC212V. Nicky Hayden had high hopes of a strong race following a promising performance in morning warm-up but the American ran into difficulties and came home an unlucky 13th. 

"That was a really tough race because Valentino's pace was very, very fast. I got a good start and the rhythm was really high, at first I was able to go with them, then I had a battle with Casey," said Pedrosa. "I tried to catch him at the end but it was impossible. It was great to be on the podium, it's a good result for the championship, but while consistency is always important, we need to win more races. The engine was good today, our main concern now is tyre consistency during the second part of races. I was losing the front towards the end of today's race, so tyres are what we must focus on. It was very important that Okada finished today, gathering a lot of data which we will examine and discuss tonight. Valentino had his seventh win here today, I hope it will be my turn at Catalunya."

Nicky Hayden commented, "This morning we made a nice step, we made a suspension adjustment and the bike felt a lot better, so we had a pretty good pace. We were certainly unlucky in the race. I got an awesome start, felt pretty good, but it was clear from the beginning that we had a problem. Guys started coming past and there was nothing I could do, there was no way to defend. So I just tried to get to the finish and get a couple of points. They're checking the data now to see exactly what happened. Like I said, we were quite unlucky, I knew we didn't have Rossi's pace this morning, but we had enough pace to be in there, to be quite competitive. I don't know yet which engine I'll be using next weekend. To be honest, I've been concentrating on this race, so I haven't thought about it yet."

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