Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) was fastest on Friday at the Aragon GP, and after a more difficult qualifying on the second row, the ‘Baby Samurai’ hit back on Sunday to slice through the field into second – and only 0.8 seconds off the win. Past Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), then side by side with Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and finally able to move past Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) into P2, the number 26 made it mission accomplished for the weekend by taking another impressive podium.
Dani Pedrosa, P2: “I think we have to be happy because overall we had a good weekend. We were there all weekend and that’s really positive – maybe the worst thing was qualifying but apart from that we worked very well and this year we were very competitive. My start when I got to the first corner, I couldn’t make any improvements and the guys around the outside were in front. I got cut there and was behind Maverick. And I chose the medium rear because I was more comfortable with that but I knew I had to manage it a bit. I was trying to control the gas, and I thought Maverick would be the same. I didn’t know how the race would develop – I tried to pass Maverick but he was fast in a straight line and into the corners. He wasn’t making mistakes until I forced it, then I could start recovering and see that my pace was much faster. I was on the limit with the front a bit but we know the hard was too hard, so we had to manage it. But it was positive, it’s always good when you pass other riders. It was close with Valentino – too close – but I’m very happy. I can’t judge what he saw, at the beginning he didn’t see me but once you’re next to someone...We were next to each other at 300km/h. But fortunately I had the speed to keep going out the slipstream and get out of that sandwich! I’m looking at the performance by weekend, our goal was to be on the podium and fight for the victory here.”