Phillip Island MotoGP
After completing 42 laps during Saturday’s MotoGP free practice and qualifying sessions for the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, Dani Pedrosa didn’t feel up to strength and opted out of Sunday’s race.
Pedrosa continues to recover from the injuries he sustained during practice for the Motegi Grand Prix two weeks ago. During the wreck, Pedrosa fractured his collarbone, along with acquiring typical bumps and bruises.
He missed the last two rounds at Motegi and Malaysia, and felt confident in competing in this weekend’s Australia Grand Prix.
After 24 hours of travel, Pedrosa arrived at Phillip Island to get on the track the first time since breaking his shoulder. On Friday, the Spaniard could only achieve the 15th quickest time after minimal laps on the track.
Pedrosa then completed 19 laps during Saturday’s practice session, and then 23 laps during qualifying. But the tough conditions of both the weather and the Phillip Island circuit forced Pedrosa to opt out of Sunday’s race due to lack of strength. Repsol Honda states “the pain, lack of strength in the affected area and lack of control of the bike when it jerks finally forced him to opt for this difficult decision.
Pedrosa will return to Barcelona, where doctors will take the stitches out of his collarbone from the surgery. He will then go to Switzerland to continue with his rehabilitation in hopes to make a return at Portugal for the penultimate round of the 2010 MotoGP season.
Dani Pedrosa says: “After the operation in Spain my target was to come back in Australia. But having ridden in the three practice sessions here it’s clear that it is really impossible for me to maintain a high pace because I lose strength in my arm lap-by-lap and controlling the bike gets increasingly difficult – even more so with the strong winds here. Phillip Island is a very fast circuit, I have to grip the handlebars very tightly, and this makes me very tired and gives me a lot of pain.”
“To ride around three seconds off the pace in the race tomorrow and maybe collect just a few points wouldn’t make much sense. But I think it has been worth it to at least try to ride here because we really didn’t know how I would be on the bike until we tried. Now, though, I don’t want to take more risks so that I can recover in time for Estoril. I discussed the situation with HRC Team Director Kazuhiko Yamano and we have the same opinion.”
