Pedrosa was very pleased with his second place result, after fight a cold all week, then crashing during Friday's practice before having a disastrous practice and qualifying session on Saturday, a second place finish was the perfect way to end a tough start to the weekend.
"I'm very happy with this result because we have been able to turn around all the problems we had during the weekend." said Pedrosa.
"After a good pre-season we got here and everything went wrong; I had flu and a fever, I crashed on Friday, and then the qualifying practice was a disaster. So, it's very good to leave here with this podium, even if I feel little bit sad because I thought I could win this race; I had it in my hands for a while." the Spanish rider commented.
"The team did a fantastic job and we saw things very different after warm-up. Then I managed a perfect start which was a key moment in the race, and I was able to stay with Casey and Jorge." he continued.
"In the end, with four laps to go I tried to take the lead, but Lorenzo was cleverer than me this time and choose a better strategy. I passed him but he overtook me immediately and also Casey, then I was behind Casey for one lap and lost contact with Jorge. Anyway, it's a good start to the season and we will try to do better in Jerez." Lorenzo concluded.
Stoner who controlled the race from the third of 22 laps on the 5.380Km desert circuit after starting from second place on the grid had some trepidation about his set-up, but the early laps showed a confident Stoner streaming into the lead.
By lap 13 his lead began to shrink. Speculation was that it was tyre-related-the new control Bridgestone tyres warm up faster at the expense of durability. In fact it was a rare occurrence of arm pump. The world champion began to have difficulty holding onto the Repsol Honda RC213V, a problem that got progressively worse.
"It wasn't really the way we wanted to finish the race weekend here." said Stoner. After Free practice three and qualifying it was always going to be a tough race for us, but in the end it came in the wrong areas."
"The bike was working well for us. I definitely had the package and the pace to lead the field, which was really positive. However, I suffered from really bad arm pump. After three or four laps I felt it but it gradually got worse." the Australian explained.
"I tried to pull a little gap from Jorge and Dani and put in the minimal effort possible to retain the gap and try and win, but as the race continued it got worse and worse and eventually the muscles had nothing more to give." continued the current world champion.
"I couldn't hold onto the handlebars properly and it made things really difficult, so it was a disappointing race for this reason, but for many other technical reasons it was very promising." Stoner concluded.
