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Pedrosa: A fantastic podium!

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa finished the French Grand Prix on the podium again as the Spaniard finished third behind country fellow Jorge Lorenzo and Marco Melandri. Pedrosa managed to pass team-mate Andrea Dovizioso in the last lap to take third place.

From the start, Pedrosa converted his pole position into an early advantage and carefully tiptoed around the track which, having been wet after rain this morning, had already started to dry. After slipping back to fifth in the tricky conditions, the 23-year-old Spaniard decided to change to his alternative bike fitted with slick Bridgestone tyres. But his move looked to be too early and the riders who stayed out on wets were able to stretch a big advantage in the treacherous conditions.

Speaking about his race Pedrosa said: "Again, this is a fantastic podium for me because the conditions were very difficult today and in the end we came through it with a good result. At the start of the race it really wasn't clear what the best thing to do was.

"In the first few laps in the wet my pace wasn't very fast and I was going backwards and losing positions. So I decided to stop quite early and change to the machine with dry tyres - at the same time as Rossi. On the first lap out of the pits on the slick tyres he crashed in front of me and this made me even more nervous about the conditions. I really couldn't see where it was wet and where it was dry so my lap times at this stage were not good - something like 1m 55s. I lost a lot of time at this point.

"Towards the end of the race when I had sufficient temperature in my tyres I was able to get into a rhythm and go faster and faster - eventually closing the gap on Andrea. In the end I caught and passed him on the last lap - really close to the finish. He was riding very well and made it hard to pass, but I was able to get the place, so I'm happy with podium today."

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