MOTOGP » DANI PEDROSA
CAREER
Dani Pedrosa is the most prolific active MotoGP winner in Spain, a country which takes its motorcycle racing very seriously. Now a mature and seasoned 26, Pedrosa is the quintessential rising star, having dazzled at every step of his career.
Hand-picked to move to the World Championship after impressing in the 1999 Movistar Activa Cup, a series meant to foster young talent in Spain, Pedrosa moved to the world stage in 2001 and began to re-write the record books. He won twice in 2002, then secured the 2003 125cc World Championship with five wins.
The following year he won the 250cc title in his first try and repeated in 2005. By the time he was 20, he’d already won three world championships and was ready to move to the senior class. On the podium in his very first MotoGP race, Pedrosa took his maiden MotoGP win three races later, making him the youngest rider to have won GP’s in all three classes, with all of his success coming on Hondas .
The hotbed of Spanish motorcycle racing is in the area surrounding Barcelona, which is where Pedrosa was born, in the suburb of Sabadell. Like most riders, he began on minibikes, riding with outrigger wheels while a four-year-old and soon showing his skills on the local go-kart tracks. His seriousness about racing came into focus as a ten-year-old when he won the Spanish minibike series in 1998. Then came the move to the Activa Cup, a series featuring identically prepared RS125 race bikes supplied by Honda Spain and backed by Telefonica Movistar.
Pedrosa’s destiny would be decided when he drew the attention of Alberto Puig, a former GP winner who had established a successful second career in fostering young talent. Puig was impressed by his fellow Spaniard’s abilities and he arranged for Pedrosa to move to the 125cc World Championship in 2001. His ascent was swift. The first of his now 31 GP wins came in Assen in 2002 and in 2003 he won the first of his world championships.
A promotion to the 250cc class followed in 2004. Now aboard a Honda RS250W, Pedrosa won a thrilling season-opener in South Africa, quickly following it up with a win in the third race in Spain. He secured the title by 61 points and won the 2005 by almost as many. MotoGP beckoned, with Pedrosa winning twice aboard the Repsol Honda RC212V in his rookie season. In more than six decades of GP racing, Pedrosa is the third youngest rider to have won a premier-class GP, after Honda hero Freddie Spencer and the late Norick Abe.
The move to 800’s in 2007 allowed Pedrosa to showcase the high speed cornering technique he’d developed in the smaller classes. Two wins at Sachsenring and Valencia came en route to second in the season point standings, Pedrosa establishing himself as a potential title MotoGP contender in the process.
Pedrosa started strong in 2008, finishing on the podium nine times, including two wins, which catapulted him into the championship lead. But a hand injury, suffered while leading the German GP, would force him to skip the next race at Laguna Seca, ultimately derailing his title hopes. A strong end of season push of three podiums in the final four races, helped to secure him third overall.
Pedrosa’s reputation as a rider susceptible to injuries struck once again ahead of the 2009 season when a pre-season accident prevented him from completing testing and he began the year on the back foot. Though a swift recovery had him on the podiums in rounds two, three and four, a minor fracture of femur at Mugello set him back again and effectively ended any hopes of a title challenge.
Pedrosa marked his return to competitiveness with victory at Laguna Seca, while a string of following podiums – including a second win at Valencia – pushed him up to third overall behind the two Yamahas.
Desperate to stay injury-free in 2010, Pedrosa overcame a stuttered start to the season to emerge as Jorge Lorenzo’s nearest title contender. A win at Mugello formed the basis of his challenge, while further successes at Sachsenring, Indianapolis and Misano, as well as podiums at Assen, Barcelona, Brno and Aragon, helped to keep countryman Lorenzo honest.
However, disaster struck Pedrosa during practice for the Japanese Grand Prix when an accident left him with a fractured collarbone, ruling him out of three races and ending any title dreams. A cautious return in the final two rounds nonetheless enabled him to take the runners-up spot.
Joined by Casey Stoner at Repsol Honda for 2011, Pedrosa’s role as team leader was under threat, though while his compatriot was certainly fast on the RC212V, the Spaniard was also thriving on the much improved machine. Enjoying his best start to a season yet, which included a win at Estoril, Pedrosa proved he was very much in the hunt.
However, his horrendous luck once again surfaced when he was involved in a controversial collision with Marco Simoncelli (for which the Italian was blamed) at Le Mans, an accident that left him with a broken collarbone.
Keeping him sidelined for a further three races, Pedrosa’s title challenge once again floundered, but he did at least give an idea what could have been by proving swift on his return, winning at Sachsenring and Motegi, even if he never showed pace to match dominant title winner Stoner.
Eventually finishing the season fourth, just behind his other team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, Pedrosa nonetheless remains at Repsol Honda for 2012, where he will be seeking an incident-free season…
