Pedrosa: Hip injury needs to be drained

Dani Pedrosa faces a sore MotoGP weekend at Le Mans after revealing he has a large swelling on his hip following the huge highside at Jerez.

The damage was done in a collision between Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo, which sent the Repsol Honda rider into a big highside while Lorenzo brought down Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.

The swelling will need to be drained, but to do so Pedrosa need to find a week without riding or heavy training.

"I'm okay more-or-less. I have a big swelling in my hip and some liquid. I can't really do anything about it now. I have to wait until after the Barcelona test next week to see what I can do," Pedrosa said at Le Mans on Thursday.

"Normally you have to take the liquid out, but then you need then to be very patient for a week to make sure the liquid doesn't come back. Because you cannot take out the liquid every time you want. And until now I have no time.

"Honestly I'm a little bit worried because I cannot stop [riding]. That's why I want to try to forget it at this moment and wait until I can really do something. Now would not be a good idea because I'm active on the bike.

"I hope [it won't be too much of a problem this weekend]. I will see because still after Mugello test it is a little bit sore, but I hope I can focus. The hand [injured in Argentina] is improving a lot, gaining a lot more strength and this is important for this track, for the braking and chicanes."

All three riders involved in the Jerez incident felt they were innocent. Pedrosa confirmed he had 'spoken with' Lorenzo but was coy on the details: "I just wanted to go there and chat with him. I did and that's it."

Despite the injuries, Pedrosa returned to the track to test at Jerez on the Monday after the race and then Mugello later last week.

"Mugello was mainly about set-up, but I didn't feel very good physically. Just confirmed the things we tested in Jerez because we tried some new parts and a little bit of set-up after the race weekend and we finished with good feeling."

New downforce fairings had been high on the priority list for both Pedrosa and team-mate Marc Marquez during last week's tests, but the #26 isn't sure when Honda will chose to run their one available fairing upgrade.

"At the Jerez test, the aero package felt good there. Then we went to Mugello and 'hmmm'… But I think it's a positive, so I hope maybe soon."

With plenty of traction areas at Le Mans, Pedrosa was asked if Honda's new carbon fibre swingarm is improving rear grip on his RC213V, as LCR's Cal Crutchlow has suggested.

"Normally of all the Honda riders, I'm the guy who is spinning the most because I just don’t load the tyre enough and my tyre spins. So I do the same lap time [as the others], with more spinning.

"I don’t think really he could see that I spin less, but normally the carbon is helping to get some more feeling because the behaviour of the material is different. So you ride differently and maybe that is what he [saw].

"It's something that is still new and has some future. We need to work more on this."

The DNFs in Argentina and Jerez mean Pedrosa  starts the Le Mans weekend just eleventh in the world championship, with seventh places in Qatar and Austin.