Pedrosa makes strong comeback with 8th place in Italian Grand Prix

Dani Pedrosa crossed the finish line at Mugello in eight position, after an impressive recovery in the first half of the race. The Repsol rider was twelfth in the fifth laps and, keeping a consistent pace, he recovered two more positions, got rid of Karel Abraham and caught up with the group including Álvaro Bautista, Valentino Rossi, Héctor Barberá and Colin Edwards. After overtaking the American, the Repsol rider remained in ninth place, at the wheel of Bautista, who had an off-track excursion eight laps from the end that allowed Pedrosa to take the eight place.

The World Championship moves in two weeks to Germany, where Casey Stoner will arrive still as the leader of the championship with 152 points, 19 ahead of Jorge Lorenzo (133 points). Andrea Dovizioso keeps the third position, only 14 points behind the Spaniard. After his result today, Dani Pedrosa is seventh, with 69 points.

Dani Pedrosa 8th at 32.043 sec.
“I’m very happy with my performance and the result was worth it in the end, even if I’m still far from 100% fit. Historically in the past, when I have tried to go back racing after an injury I wasn’t able to finish the race and today I managed to. I see that even being out for a quite a long period of time, I haven’t lost the speed, so I’m sure that I’ll back on top when my physical condition improves.

At the start of the race, I had a problem with the clutch and I couldn’t operate the gears for a lap and a half, so I lost everything in this moment. I lost many places and when the clutch started working again I tried to get into rhythm and find my pace, even though I was very tired very soon.

I was improving step by step and caught the group ahead consisting of Valentino, Barberá and Bautista. However, by that time I already had no energy to push any harder.I am extremely tired now, I gave everything I had and to take eighth position and eight points in my conditions, together with this clutch problem is quite a good result in my view.

I’m satisfied with my race pace, I didn’t think I would be able to lap in the high 1’49’s, low 1’50’s during the twenty three laps, so I’m happy about this. Congratulations to Jorge (Lorenzo) for his good race and many thanks to my fans and doctors for helping me to be back”.

Source: Repsol Media