Reigning world champion Casey Stoner said he was impressed with Dani Pedrosa's pace at the start of the German MotoGP round this afternoon and added he had to wait until his tyres came up to temperature before he gave chase.
The Ducati rider eventually won by more than three seconds, but when Pedrosa fell he was more than seven seconds in front of the Australian. However, he revealed he hasn't been feeling well all weekend.

"I saw Dani ride off into the distance and I thought 'fair play' - there was no way I could keep that pace in those conditions at that time. We definitely needed a bit more time to get the tyres up to temperature and Dani just kept edging away," said Stoner.
"Then after a few laps I was coming down the main straight and I could see his bike bouncing around in the gravel at turn one. It's a shame for him but even though he crashed he was still very impressive today. From then on it was a case of keeping my concentration but that wasn't easy because I've been a little sick all weekend and I wasn't feeling at all good during the race. Also, we went with quite a hard rear tyre compound and I had quite a few small moments that made me nervous but kept me on my guard.
"I kept pushing where I could and managed to keep opening out the advantage with every lap, then kept it upright to the end. It's nice to close the championship down a little bit more and once again I owe a huge 'thank you' to the team, who have adapted the bike to virtually any condition here. This win is dedicated to them."