MotoGP

Pedrosa Refuses To Give Up On Title Challenge

2 Mins read

Dani Pedrosa believes the championship fight is still alive despite losing 25 points to Jorge Lorenzo at Misano. The Repsol Honda rider endured a miserable afternoon, first losing pole position due to an infringement on the grid, and then getting taken out by Hector Barbera as he recovered from the back of the field.

Speaking after the race, Pedrosa shed light on the chain of events which destroyed his afternoon while promising to keep up the pressure on Lorenzo in the remaining five races.

“It’s was total chaos and many things happened at the same time. It all began with the restart because the procedure was not at all clear. Nobody knew if it was one minute, three minutes, warmers on or off… We were also getting different information about the number of laps, 26, 27… Then suddenly we were told it was 1 minute to the start of the race, with no board signage, nothing. The mechanics were rushing to prepare and when they tried to take off the warmers my front wheel was somehow locked, they tried to unlock it but they weren’t able to and due to the 1 minute warning – where they are not allowed to touch the bike anymore – they put me to the back of the grid. I tried to remain focused, not make any mistake on the first lap, make clear moves to overtake riders and I was 8th or 9th by the sixth corner when Barberá hit me from behind, and that was it. I’m very upset because even it’s easy to say now, I think I could have had a chance to win this race, even starting from the last place on the grid.”

“Now the Championship is obviously more uphill for me, but I will continue the same way. We have done everything we could so far, the bike is working well and I’m riding well, too. So it’s not over for me; there are still 5 races to go and we will do our best”.

Meanwhile, teammate Jonathan Rea took the sole remaining Repsol Honda to eighth on his MotoGP debut but the Briton still feels there is plenty to come before his next outing at Aragon.

“It was a tough race and I just wanted to get into a rhythm and maintain it. I’m still nowhere near the limit, I’m not really having any moments, just a few mistakes running wide, it’s a matter of trust and I’m still acclimatising to the machine. I’m really happy with the progress I made throughout the race and I learnt so much that you simply can’t pick up in testing about race distance, how the tyre wear goes down, the fuel load and how the bike behaves differently. In the beginning Nicky pulled a gap and I was catching him but in the end it wasn’t enough. To finish 8th is ok, but the gap to the front is a little frustrating. In general I’m really happy and I’m looking forward to the next challenge in Aragon. I want to thank all the Repsol Honda team for their hard work and support they’ve given me and to all the fans back home”.

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