Dani Pedrosa took his fifth podium from six 2008 starts at Mugello on Sunday, but admits he now needs a return to winning ways.
While
Valentino Rossi romped to his third win of the season on Sunday, early race leader Pedrosa also lost out to Ducati's
Casey Stoner and has now slipped 12 points from the Italian heading into his second home round of the season, at Catalunya, this Sunday.
"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. I tried to catch him at the end but it was impossible," said Dani, winner at
Jerez. "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," he revealed. "It was very important that Okada finished today, gathering a lot of data [with the pneumatic valve engine] which we will examine and discuss tonight. Valentino had his seventh win here today, I hope it will be my turn at Catalunya."
Although a decision on which engine Pedrosa and Repsol Honda team-mate
Nicky Hayden will race next weekend was initially expected on Sunday night,
Crash.net understands that a final decision will only be made on Tuesday.
Tady Okada, contesting his first grand prix in almost eight years, took the pneumatic-valve engine to a 14th place finish on its race debut - and says the new powerplant has clear advantages and disadvantages over the standard unit.
