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Dani Pedrosa was satisfied with his first performance of the MotoGP season, as he took third place behind Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi in the Qatari GP.

Despite having battled with Rossi for second place in the first few laps, Pedrosa soon found himself unable to keep up with the front two and from then on concentrated on ensuring he managed a podium finish.

Having endured a fairly troubled build-up to the race, the young Honda rider was content with his "useful" start to the season and particularly pleased with the way he began in Qatar, although he was less happy with the way things progressed after that.

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Turning to the challenges that lie ahead, Pedrosa commented: "This season is going to be a tough competition between the bikes, tyres and the riders and it should be very interesting.

"The next race is very important and Jerez is a great track, so I hope we can move on from the good result today and do great job there."

Not only was last weekend's placement the ninth podium finish of Pedrosa's brief MotoGP career, it was also his 50th in total in all levels of grand prix racing - making him, at the tender age of 21, the youngest rider ever to achieve this total.

The Spaniard followed last year's debut top five finish with some excellent performances in preseason and has impressed a number of his fellow racers, including Rossi and Honda team mate and defending champion Nicky Hayden.

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