Pedrosa decides to quit Australian GP after difficult and painful qualifying
Bad day for the Repsol Honda Team in Australia. Dani Pedrosa, who arrived in Phillip Island, after travelling for 24-hours, on Tuesday night with the intention of taking part in the Grand Prix – just two weeks after fracturing his left collarbone in Japan –, has been forced to take the difficult decision to give up his attempt to compete tomorrow to score some points in the overall standings. Andrea Dovizioso, ninth, was not very successful either on a day battered by the strong wind.
Although the sun came out and the track conditions improved, the second day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix was a tough test for Dani Pedrosa and his injured physical condition. In the free practice session, the Repsol rider did 19 laps, setting a best time of 1 minute, 34 seconds and 804 milliseconds. In the qualifying session, he completed another 23 laps and was able to shave a second and a half off his times, although still suffering a lot of pain in the first two sections of the Australian track, where the strong wind particularly affected his recently-operated left collarbone. In total, he had 42 laps to conclude, afterwards and along with his team, that in this physical condition it was better to give up and return to action in Portugal.
After a long meeting with his technicians and members of his team, the Repsol Honda Team rider took this difficult decision in order not to take any necessary risks, given the tough conditions of the track and his delicate physical form. The pain, lack of strength in the affected area and lack of control of the bike when it jerks finally forced him to opt for this difficult decision.
Now Pedrosa will return to Barcelona, where he will have the stitches taken out of his left collarbone and then he will go to Switzerland to continue with his rehabilitation, now with his sights set on Portugal.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’33.384 sec., 42 laps, 187 KM
“After the operation in Spain my target was to come back in Australia. But having ridden in the three practice sessions here it’s clear that it is really impossible for me to maintain a high pace because I lose strength in my arm lap-by-lap and controlling the bike gets increasingly difficult – even more so with the strong winds here. Phillip Island is a very fast circuit, I have to grip the handlebars very tightly, and this makes me very tired and gives me a lot of pain. To ride around three seconds off the pace in the race tomorrow and maybe collect just a few points wouldn’t make much sense. But I think it has been worth it to at least try to ride here because we really didn’t know how I would be on the bike until we tried. Now, though, I don’t want to take more risks so that I can recover in time for Estoril. I discussed the situation with HRC Team Director Kazuhiko Yamano and we have the same opinion.”
Source: Repsol Media Service
