Rear brake issue costs Dani Pedrosa

A rear brake problem cost Dani Pedrosa a chance to celebrate his 150th Grand Prix in style at the Le Mans circuit in France.

The Spaniard looked certain to claim his 40th MotoGP podium finish when he started the final lap in third place.

Pedrosa had done brilliantly to fend off the tenacious challenge from team-mate Andrea Dovizioso and factory Ducati rider Nicky Hayden after he was unable to close in on a fading Valentino Rossi for second place.

But a rear brake issue, which left him struggling to enter corners and control wheelies on the exit, seriously undermined Pedrosa’s bid for third.

The 24-year-old succumbed to Dovizioso at the first chicane on the final lap to surrender third.

But worse was to follow and he lost fourth place right at the death when he missed his braking marker to let Hayden surge through to collect his third fourth place of the 2010 campaign.

Being relegate to fifth also saw Pedrosa lose third in the overall rankings to Dovizioso and the triple world champion said: “Well of course I’m not satisfied to have finished in this way because we were able to stay near the leaders for the first part of the race and then dropped back.

“Losing two places on the final lap is not a good feeling. My start was ok and I could stay near the front in the first laps but later in the race I was making a lot of mistakes trying to maintain my pace.

“I had a bit of a rear brake issue, which meant I couldn’t get the bike into the turns as I wanted and I was fighting the bike a bit.

“Andrea rode well and pushed very hard at the end, so congratulations to him on the podium finish.”