Pedrosa on top form for Donington visit

Friday, 13 June 2008

Dani Pedrosa should be fully recovered from his Catalunya test crash for the bwin.com British Grand Prix, as he aims to continue a great run of form.

Repsol Honda´s Dani Pedrosa goes into the eighth GP of the year at Donington on a superb run of form, and with time to recover from a highside crash at the Circuit de Catalunya in testing on Monday after his sensational home win, he is expected to be as competitive as ever on British soil.

Although his team-mate Nicky Hayden could switch to the new pneumatic-valve engine at Donington, Pedrosa will continue with the conventional spring-valve engine for the trip to England. The Spaniard suffered a heavy fall on the first day of post-Catalunya testing and was thus unable to fully acquaint himself with the pneumatic-valve version – and therefore prefers to stay with the machine he is more acquainted with.

Given Pedrosa´s form of late and the general view that top-end power (which the new motor is aimed at delivery more of) is not crucial to success at Donington, the Catalan rider´s decision to stick with a winning formula is the logical choice.

Trailing general standings leader Valentino Rossi by seven points – the Italian having taken the championship advantage with three consecutive wins in China, France and Italy – Pedrosa is nonetheless the in-form rider in the premier class over the last ten races, with a highly consistent run which commenced towards the end of last season.

In the ten Grands Prix since he crashed out in Japan last year Pedrosa has only twice finished off the podium (he was fourth on both of those occasions), has similarly only twice failed to qualify on the front row, has achieved three victories and has taken four pole positions.

During that period the 22 year-old has accumulated a total of 189 points, more than any other rider in the class – a return which compares to 162 points for Casey Stoner over the same period and 169 points for Rossi.

Having won the 2006 MotoGP race and the 2004 250cc contest at Donington Pedrosa will take his good form into the British round of the championship knowing he is one of the hot favourites for another victory, but in his typical down-to-earth style he is taking nothing for granted.

`Winning in Catalunya was great but there are still many races to go, so we have to keep pushing,´ says the man from Sabadell, just outside Barcelona. `I crashed on the day after my home race, hurting my back and shoulders, but I will be okay for the next one.´

Assessing the peculiarities of the Donington track, Pedrosa continued, `It is quite a strange circuit, quite smooth but not so grippy, and it often rains there. My favourite part of the track is the uphill section all the way to Coppice. I don´t like the last part, it´s very slow and tight. You need a set-up similar to Le Mans, so the bike accelerates hard and brakes well too. You also need as much grip as you can get because the surface is quite slippery.´

`The two different parts of the circuit require different riding styles. The first requires a smooth style, the second a very aggressive style,´ he concluded.