Surprise second for Pedrosa

An excellent start from fourth on the grid saw Dani Pedrosa lead the first six laps of Sunday's Indianapolis MotoGP, before being passed by Repsol Honda team-mate Casey Stoner.

But by then Pedrosa had pulled far enough away from a recovering Ben Spies to take a safe second place at the flag.

"Actually, I'm very, very happy because yesterday in qualifying, I was one-second behind Casey. One second a lap is a lot. We didn't expect to have the pace to race with Ben and Casey so to finish second is unbelievable for me," said Pedrosa, who finished 4.8sec from Stoner after 28 laps, and 5.8sec in front of Spies.

"It was a tough race being alone, but I focused on my lap times and I made my best lap at the end, so I'm happy with my performance and the bike. To get 20 points is not so bad after the crash in Brno and I look forward to going to Misano next week to try and take another step forward".

Pedrosa's sixth podium of the year has moved him back up to fourth in the world championship. Pedrosa missed three races due to injury earlier this season.