MotoGP: Pedrosa to Race Record 150th

MotoGP News

Records are made to be broken, and MotoGP star Dani Pedrosa is about to break one this weekend at Le Mans – the Spaniard will become the youngest rider to compete in 150 Grand Prix races.

On Sunday, Pedrosa will be 24 years and 236 days old, beating the current record holder Marco Melandra, who raced in his 150th in 2007 at 25 years and 26 days old. True to on manufacturer, all of Pedrosa’s starts were also made on Hondas: 46 in the 125 class, 32 in the 250 class, and, after Sunday, 72 in MotoGP.

Pedrosa has two 250 World Championships, and one in the 125 class. To date, he has 15 250cc wins, eight 125cc wins and eight in the premier class.

With two of 18 rounds completed this year, Pedrosa has a best finish of third at Jerez, and seventh at the season opener in Qatar. He grabbed the pole at Jerez after experimenting with a stiffer frame on his RC212V.

Dani Pedrosa says: "After the Jerez race I’m looking forward to arriving in Le Mans and continuing with our recent progress. We were able to complete a good weekend in Spain, being fast from the first practice and building up to the best set-up possible for the race."

"This is the pattern we have to achieve again in France. Le Mans is one of those circuits where you need to be prepared for any track conditions because the weather can play a big part during the weekend. In fact, last year’s wet-dry race was a good example of this."

"So it will be very important to make maximum use of the practice sessions and be ready to set the bike up for a wide range of weather conditions and temperatures. Le Mans will also be my 150th Grand Prix in the World Championship, and I would really like to mark this with another great result there."

During last year’s Le Mans race, Pedrosa set a series of fastest laps, and chased down his teammate Andrea Dovizioso to claim the final podium spot, arriving behind Melandra and Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo.

MotoGP Standings after Round 2:
1. Jorge Lorenzo, 45
2. Valentino Rossi, 41
3. Dani Pedrosa, 29
4. Andrea Dovizioso, 26
5. Nicky Hayden, 26
6. Randy de Puniet, 17
7. Colin Edwards, 12
8. Casey Stoner, 11
9. Ben Spies, 11
10. Marco Melandri, 11
11. Marco Simocelli, 10
12. Mika Kallio, 9
13. Hiroshi Aoyama, 8
14. Loris Capirossi, 7
15. Hector Barbera, 7
16. Alvaro Bautista, 6
17. Aleix Espargaro, 1

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