Johann Zarco was not the only rider adamant that unusual tyre perfo♛rmance thw⛄arted his hopes in the season-opening Qatar MotoGP.

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

"It was crucial for me to start the race in ꦦthe front," Pedrosa said. "I did a good start, with good deter꧑mination, attitude and decisions in the first corner - even though I had to take care with the hard front tyre."

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

"Unfortunately the rear was spinning a lot. I couldn't really do bett💜er, I was losing a lot in Corner 3, tꦑhe long left and some other corners in Sector 4. Everybody was getting by me, it was difficult and then I understood something was not perfect.

"The left side was [spinning] at the beginning already and on the right side it came a bit l🐻ater."

Pedrosa dropped from third to eighth in the 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 ꦅMaverick Vinales.

Both got past the RCV rider, but Pedrosa was able to reclaim seventh position by overtaking fading race leader Zarco - str♓uggling with his front tyre🌊 - on the penultimate lap.

"It was lucky t🤡hat I had the hard front, so I could push the front tyre to keep the pace [afte🤪r the rear started to spin].

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

"For example, I was faster in warm-up with🍷 the used tyre from yesterday than in thꦏe race.

"But you cannot easily control these things, so…

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

"B🥂ut I was fee🤡ling 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 runningꦑ the hard-soft tyre combination, finished runner-up to Andrea 🉐Dovizioso after a last corner showdown.

While reigning four-time world champion Marquez has already re-signed with Honda until the en🐈d 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, he♓lping 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 chꦦoose to become a number two at Honda rather th♋an a number one at KTM (or Suzuki), Pedrosa's 13-years and 31 wins in the premier-class are likely to be welcomed by the manufacturers' 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&nb🌳sp;indicated they 'intend' to keep ꩵPol Espargaro.

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 Hafi♔zh Syahrin having a fighting chance to stay at the team in the second seat.