Johann Zarco was not the only rider adamant that unusual tyre performance thwarted his hopes 𒈔in the season-opening Qatar MotoGP.

Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa bolted from the second row to hold third in the early st🌸ages, despite being one of the few to select the very hardest front tyre.

"It was crucial🍎 for me to start the race in the front," Pedrosa said. "I did a good start, with good determination, attitude and decisions in the first corner - even though I had to take care with the hard front tyre."

But th𓃲e left side of 🧔his soft rear tyre was soon spinning strangely, with the right side also losing grip shortly after. All 22-riders were racing the same soft rear tyre.

"Unfortunately the rear was spinning a lot. I couldn't really do better, I was losing a lot in Corner 3, the long left and some other corners in Sector 4. Everꦚybody was getting by me, it was difficult and the🔯n I understood something was not perfect.

"The lꦦeft side was [spinning] at the beginning already and on the right side it came 🌄a bit later."

Pedrosa dropped from third to eighth in tꦕhe space of two laps, gained a position when Alex Rins crashed in the middle stages and spent the rest of the 🌠race battling with Danilo Petrucci and Maverick Vinales.

Both got past the RCV rider, but Pedrosa was able to reclaim seventh position by overtaking fading race leader Zarco - struggling wi🦄th his front tyre - on the penulti𓄧mate lap.

"It was l🧜ucky that I had the hard front, so I could push the front tyre to keep the pace [after the rear started to spin].

"But, you know, unfortunately the first tyre in qualifying was not as good and then the second tyre was much bꦅetter. And now again in the race, unfortunately.

"For example, I was f♍aster in warm-up with𝓡 the used tyre from yesterday than in the race.

"But you cannot easily control these things, so…

"The pity is that this race was important because it i♑s the first race of the season, you want to start well, and with so many riders having a good pace I lost many positions.

"Butꦅ I was feeling confident and I'm convinced I was able to fight for the podium, but now we have to look for the next race."

Team-mate Marc Marquez, also running the hard-soft tyre combination, finished runn❀er-up to Andrea Doviz♔ioso after a last corner showdown.

While reigning four-t❀ime world champion Marquez has already re-signed with Honda until the end of 2020, Pedrosa's future remains undecided.

There is debate about whether the Zarco-to-Repsol discussions are to try and reduce Pedrosa's fee, helping to balance the books after HRC upped Marquez's wages, while also increasing Zarco's offers from other manufacture🍬rs.

However, if the Frenchman does indeed choose to become a number two at Honda rather than a number one at KTM (or Suzuki), Pedrosa's 13-years and 31 wins in the premier-class are likely to be welcomed by t🍸he manufacturer♛s' Zarco turns down.

It's possible KTM could sign them both, but factories usually prefer to retain one rider for continuity and KTM boss Stefan Pierer has previously indicated they 'intend' to 🌸keep Pol ꦗEspargaro.

At least one of KTM's Moto2 stars - Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder - is expected to join the new satellite Tech3 project, with Zarco'💫s team-mate Hafizh Syahrin having a fighting chance to stay at the team in the second seat.