Pedrosa: “I’m happy I felt good enough chase the front”

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) takes a lot of positives from Argentina despite a DNF, with the Spaniard happy he felt good enough to start trying to chase down the front group in a drama-fuelled race. Pedrosa had bested Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) in a stunning fight for fourth when he then set off in pursuit of the podium, before the crash halted progress as he slid out of contention at Turn 2 – the same place that teammate Marc Marquez crashed only a handful of laps before.

Dani Pedrosa, DNF: “I got a decent start, but then I lost time in the first part of the race dueling with Petrucci and Zarco. I started pushing hard after I passed him because I was feeling good on the bike and wanted to try and close the gap on the others to fight for the podium, but unfortunately I crashed in the second corner. There are a lot of bumps in that turn, and they create a tricky situation, as the grip is kind of ‘on-off.’ When you’re pushing really hard, the limit becomes quite narrow. Of course it’s a shame about the crash, but on another hand I’m happy I felt good enough to try and chase down the front group. We’ll keep this motivation for the next race in Austin.”