MotoGP News
The Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi will be a special MotoGP event for Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa this week – the Spaniard will celebrate his birthday, and also compete on Honda’s own circuit in Motegi, the famed Twin Ring.
Pedrosa, who turns 25 on Wednesday, Sept. 29, will also be hoping to lessen the 56-point lead held by his fellow countryman, Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo. All season Pedrosa has had positive results aboard his RC212V, and has become one of the “aliens” in MotoGP racing, which includes Lorenzo, Ducati Team rider Casey Stoner and nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi.
Here’s a bit of history on Pedrosa’s racing career as he celebrates his 25th birthday.
Repsol Honda says ten years ago, precisely in the 2001 season Japanese Grand Prix, the young Repsol rider made his debut in the Motorcycle World Championships 125cc class at just 15 years old.
At that time, the competition was held at the Suzuka circuit, not at Motegi, and that day, the world championship journey of one of the most important figures in Spanish motorcycling began. That same year, Pedrosa took his first podium, in Valencia, and, one season later, his first win.
Repsol Honda says his early promise was proved by his 125cc World Champion Title in 2003, beginning a meteoric career which took him on to win two consecutive World Championships in the two subsequent seasons, this time in the 250cc’s.
Shattering records, five years later Pedrosa made his debut in the premier-class World Championships, MotoGP, in which he is currently competing in his fifth season, has achieved four wins and positioned himself, together with fellow countryman Lorenzo, as one of the two riders who, at this time, can aspire to the MotoGP title.
Repsol Honda says over the last ten years, Pedrosa has achieved 35 wins – 8 in 125cc, 15 in 250cc and 12 in MotoGP – 88 podiums in 160 races contested, in which he has started 35 times from pole position and has set the fastest lap time of the race 41 times. He has three World Championship titles and 2,360 points, numbers which, at 25, as he turns tomorrow, he will continue to improve on day after day, fighting to achieve his lifetime dream: to be World Champion of the premier-class.