Pedrosa withdraws from Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix

Dani Pedrosa has withdrawn from the remaining action at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, having already been an absentee from the third and final qualifying session. The Spaniard made a final decision on Saturday morning, having participated in the first day of activities at Laguna Seca whilst in considerable pain.

The Repsol Honda rider had flown to the U.S.A with the intention of testing his condition following a big crash at the last round in Germany. Pedrosa had suffered a fracture to both his left clutch finger and wrist, in addition to a sprained ankle, and had boarded the plane to round eleven of the World Championship having undergone surgery on his digit as recently as last Monday.

In his initial practice runs he had been using a specially adapted glove, between-session massages and painkilling injections, but even these measures were not enough to help him finish any higher than fifteenth on the combined timesheets. His best time from Friday was a 1´23.707, over two seconds slower than that recorded by pacesetter Casey Stoner in the most recent session.

Pedrosa´s missing the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday marks the first race that he has not started since the end of 2003, when he was forced out of the final 125cc contests of the year in Australia and Valencia with broken ankles.