When home hero and KTM wild-card Dani Pedrosa crossed the finish line just 0.050s behind Fabio Quartararo in the Jerez MotoGP Sprint, he th൲ought they had been battling for ‘6th or 7th’.

Instead, due to a chaotic 15 falls, the pair w🎃ere tussling ov♓er third place.

A𒁃 further twist saw Quartararo penalised after the race for low tyre pressure, promoting Pedrosa to his first MotoGP top-three since 2017 and best result yet as a KTM test rider.

While the ruling came too late for Pedrosa to be part of the official rostrum celebrations, KTM brought the Spri❀nt podium to the paddock for an unofficial ceremony on Saturday ꦺevening (pictured)!

“A hectic race because the track conditions were tricky. It was very♚ easy to hit a damp spot and slide. I stayed very precise and benefitted from all the crashes,” said Pedrosa.

“In the last laps I tried to overtake [Quartararo] a few times but I did not know we were fightin💛g for the podium because I could not🌃 see my pitboard that well.

“When I came into the Box I thought it was 6th or 7th! For a moment it looked like we had missed out[on a podium] by half a tenth of a second but t𒈔he penalties arrived and I’m really happy for th🍌e whole team. They deserve it.

“We didn’t do so well in practice or have a good feeling in the qualifying so starting from P16 the hopes were lower than fo𓆏r a podium!

“We will take this great finish today.”

KTM team manager Francesco Guidotti added: “We were fighting for the podium in the Sprint with Brad and Dani finally made it - which is outstan🌠ding, especially from that position in the middle of the pack.”