Dani Pedrosa's home victory in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix has put the Repsol Honda rider on top of the
MotoGP World Championship standings for the first time ever - and, given his and Honda's problems heading into the new season, things should only get better.
Pedrosa, the 2006 MotoGP rookie of the year and 2007 title runner-up to
Casey Stoner, entered the 2008 season with a recently fractured hand and riding an '08 chassis modified to fit around the old '07 spring-valve engine, after Honda's new pneumatic-valve powerplant was sent back to Japan for further development.
It was hardly a recipe for success, yet Pedrosa pulled out a surprise third position at the Qatar season opener - from eighth on the grid - then led Sunday's second round at
Jerez from start to finish.
"This is my first MotoGP win at Jerez and I'm very happy about today's performance because it comes after a difficult winter during which we couldn't test so much after I crashed and broke my right hand in January. To score good results in two complicated races and lead the championship is very important," confirmed Pedrosa.
With Qatar-winner Stoner running off track twice
en route to eleventh, Pedrosa has now taken the title lead by five points over rookie arch-rival
Jorge Lorenzo, with
Valentino Rossi a further five points back on the second Fiat Yamaha and Stoner 11 from the top for Ducati.
With 16 rounds still to go anything is possible, but it's a safe bet that Pedrosa's hand will soon be back to full fitness - and that the full '08 RCV engine will be seen at some point during the season.
It is perhaps only when the new engine arrives that the full extent of the Pedrosa/Honda challenge will be made clear, but either way - having missed so much pre-season testing following his fiery January fall - there is surely plenty of scope for Pedrosa to improve upon even his Jerez-winning package.
