During a press conference at Brno on Friday, HRC president Tetsuo Suzuki announced that both
Dani Pedrosa and
Andrea Dovizioso are set to stay at the factory Honda
MotoGP team for the next two seasons.
Pedrosa has been a Honda rider for his entire grand prix career, which began in the 125cc class in 2001. The Spaniard won the 125cc world championship in 2003 and then the 250cc crown in 2004 and 2005.
Graduating to
MotoGP with factory Repsol Honda in 2006, Pedrosa was a race winner in his first premier-class season and, until Dovizioso's victory in the recent British Grand Prix, was the only Honda rider to win races in the 800cc era, which began in 2007.
Pedrosa, who has battled frequent injuries in recent years, was second in the 2007
MotoGP World Championship and is presently fourth in the 2009 standings after ten of 17 rounds. Pedrosa has won seven
MotoGP races.
Dovizioso has been a Honda rider since his first full 125cc season in 2002 and won the 2004 world championship before spending three seasons in the 250cc class. Dovi finished twice runner-up to Aprilia's
Jorge Lorenzo before joining the Spaniard in moving to
MotoGP in 2008.
Fifth in the championship with one podium also made Dovizioso the top satellite rider and he was promoted to the factory team for 2009. Dovizioso currently sits sixth in the championship with his
Donington win also marking his first podium of the year.
The news of an unchanged factory Honda line-up for 2010 means that
Jorge Lorenzo is almost certain to remain at Fiat Yamaha - and that Yamaha's bargaining power has now increased significantly.
“We spoke with Lorenzo, but we eventually concluded that
Dani Pedrosa and
Andrea Dovizioso would be the best line-up for us and there are no plans to provide another bike to Lorenzo," said Suzuki.
Had Lorenzo switched to Honda, arch rival Pedrosa was expected to move in the opposite direction and partner reigning six time
MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi.
The news that Pedrosa and Dovizioso are staying means that five 2010 seats are now confirmed, the three others being Rossi (Fiat Yamaha),
Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro) and Marco Simoncelli (Gresini Honda),
