Estoril MotoGP: Pedrosa Builds Confidence

Portugal MotoGP

The Australia MotoGP was the third consecutive race Pedrosa missed due to breaking his shoulder, but after two weeks of additional recovery time since Phillip Island, the Spaniard is confident of being competitive at this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril.

The 25-year-old Repsol Honda rider missed those MotoGP rounds due to breaking his shoulder at the practice-session crash in Motegi.

During the wreck, in which the accelerator became stuck on his Honda RC212V, the 24-year old sustained a double fracture to his left collarbone.

Pedrosa was operated on after the Motegi MotoGp race, and recently had all his stitches removed. Now he expects a better level of comfort, which may bring back his typical positive results on the Honda.

Dani Pedrosa says: “We get back on track this weekend at Estoril and, in principle, the situation should be much better than it was for me in Australia. The Estoril circuit is not as demanding as Phillip Island and this should help me to feel more comfortable on the bike. Plus I’ve had some more time to recover which should help too.”

“This kind of injury needs time to heal and with two more weeks having passed I’m really looking forward to seeing how much the shoulder has improved. I went to visit the doctor last Tuesday to have the stitches removed, and the scar is fine. I’ve been doing some more rehabilitation on the muscles and I have some more strength, but I will not be able to fully judge how much difference there is until I get on the bike on Friday morning. Also, I think it can be positive for me that there will be two practice sessions on Friday again, as we had in Aragón.”

As for the Estoril round of MotoGP, Pedrosa has finished on the podium during the past three years, and says the layout may be easier on his still-recovery injury.

“In terms of the track layout, Estoril has some hard braking areas and it’s bumpy, but the fact that it has more right hand corners than left can be good for us. So, I’m looking forward to getting there with my team and seeing how I feel,” he concluded.”

Going into Estoril, Pedrosa holds a 23-point lead over Ducati Team rider Casey Stoner. The Australian won at Phillip Island, and was joined on the podium by the Fiat Yamaha M1 team, 2010 MotoGP Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.

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