Pedrosa was able to capitalise on the Repsol Honda as Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales struggled with apparent tyre wear issues, enabling the Spaniard to make up ground in the championship.
“It’s amazing to pull out this win because our rivals were not as good – for some reason, I don’t know the situation. Normally they are favourites at this track and as usual every year at least one bike is on the podium from them. We get back some points that we lost after our mistake in Argentina, so it is quite good for us and interesting for the championship,” said Pedrosa, who was also on the rostrum in round three at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, finishing third.
“It was a very nice race, I’m very happy. It was not as easy as I might think but I enjoyed because at the beginning I was so focused and it was important to do a very focused race.
“In these kind of conditions the track was not as grippy as in the practice, maybe because of the temperature, for some reason I felt there was less grip. I was running the hard front the same as many riders and really at the beginning I could pull a gap. Later I could see I was running quite fast so I had to manage my rear because I was on the medium and then I tried to keep my pace under control.”
Pole man Pedrosa led all the way to win the 3000th Grand Prix motorcycle race, always managing to stay one step ahead of team-mate Marc Marquez, who sealed the runner-up spot – six seconds back at the finish.
“At some point Marc started to close the gap a little bit, to be fast, and as I said at two or three corners the front was very critical, and it was easy to make a mistake if you push too hard. But you cannot push to little either, so you must keep the pace,” said Pedrosa.
“I did some mistakes and one time I think I was off the track, before the fast corners after the stadium, I was on the kerb and I was over the limit. I lost maybe three tenths and I was lucky to stay close to the track and come back. I’m very happy because the weekend was amazing in front of these amazing people. I like this track so much and I enjoyed very much the race.”
Pedrosa was able to open a cushion at the beginning of the race as he maximised the medium rear Michelin, with Marquez opting for the hard rear.
“At the beginning I pulled a gap but I didn’t want the gap to be so big because I could be faster at the beginning, but with the medium rear I didn’t want to stress the tyre too much. Marc was on the hard and maybe took more time to warm up, but I knew he could also be strong from the middle to the end.
“I’m happy to win this race for my team because we have worked hard from the winter time and after starting not so well in the championship, we are improving little bit little, knowing better the bike and working in a better area, so it is all going positive after the last podium and now this win, we hope to continue in this way.”
The Honda has been improving race by race and Pedrosa puts his progress down to a combination of factors.
“I would say we are learning more about the bike and getting closer to where the bike is looking stronger, also set-up wise and electronics. Also you are getting more used to the riding style of the bike, learning from our mistakes or our not good points.
“We are able to stay more in good area and also you have to add that Yamaha were not so strong here when normally they are. What we can do is try to step up little by little and since the last race we are improving, so hopefully we can keep improving in the same line.”