Mid-Season Review: Dani Pedrosa

After an injury affected start to 2015, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa ended the season strongly with two wins in the last four races. With the change to Michelin Tyres for 2016 the Spaniard was being touted as one of the favourites to become champion, but it has turned out to be a season of frustration for Pedrosa.

At the first race of the season under the floodlights of Qatar, it was clear that everything was not right with Pedrosa as he crossed the line in sixth, over 14 seconds behind race winner Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP).

Just when it looked like he had managed to turn his fortunes around by finishing third in Argentina, he lost control of his RC213V in Austin and torpedoed the unlucky Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team), recording his first DNF since Sepang 2014. While he may have not scored any points in the race, he certainly did with the fans for his reaction to the incident.

Three consecutive fourth place finishes at Jerez, Le Mans and Mugello saw him move up to fourth in the standings, but he was already 49-points behind championship leader Lorenzo. The Italian GP also saw Pedrosa record his 250th GP start.

At the Catalan GP he fought hard to return to the podium, only his second of the season, by finishing in third but it certainly wasn’t easy for the Spanish rider.

The two-part wet race at Assen ended Pedrosa’s run of four races finishing inside the top four. Pedrosa limped home in 12th and found himself trailing his teammate Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) by 59 points, with Maverick Viñales threatening his fourth spot in the championship standings.

Another flag-to-flag race at the Sachsenring saw Pedrosa struggle once more, despite topping the wet Warm Up session before hand. Eventually he crossed the line in sixth, which meant he remains fourth in the standings with 96 points, 70 points behind his teammate and Championship leader Marquez.