Dani Pedrosa: “I didn’t know we were fighting for the podium!”
Dani Pedrosa thought his Jerez Sprint battle with Fabio Quartararo was over '6th or 7th place'.
When home hero and KTM wild-card Dani Pedrosa crossed the finish line just 0.050s behind Fabio Quartararo in the Jerez MotoGP Sprint, he thought they had been battling for ‘6th or 7th’.
Instead, due to a chaotic 15 falls, the pair were tussling over third place.
A further twist saw Quartararo penalised after the race for low tyre pressure, promoting Pedrosa to his first MotoGP top-three since 2017 and best result yet as a KTM test rider.
While the ruling came too late for Pedrosa to be part of the official rostrum celebrations, KTM brought the Sprint podium to the paddock for an unofficial ceremony on Saturday evening (pictured)!
“A hectic race because the track conditions were tricky. It was very easy to hit a damp spot and slide. I stayed very precise and benefitted from all the crashes,” said Pedrosa.
“In the last laps I tried to overtake [Quartararo] a few times but I did not know we were fighting for the podium because I could not see my pitboard that well.
“When I came into the Box I thought it was 6th or 7th! For a moment it looked like we had missed out[on a podium] by half a tenth of a second but the penalties arrived and I’m really happy for the whole team. They deserve it.
“We didn’t do so well in practice or have a good feeling in the qualifying so starting from P16 the hopes were lower than for a podium!
“We will take this great finish today.”
KTM team manager Francesco Guidotti added: “We were fighting for the podium in the Sprint with Brad and Dani finally made it - which is outstanding, especially from that position in the middle of the pack.”
