Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) wasn't sure if he would be able to ride in the season finale until FP1, after the Spaniard suffered a highside in Japan that left him with multiple fractures including a broken collarbone. But, the 'Baby Samurai' graduated straight to Q2 after maintaining his place in the top ten throughout practice and pushing hard to do so - then pulling out an incredible effort in qualifying to start P8 for the final race of the year, despite suffering a little more than on Friday.
Dani Pedrosa (P8): "I’m really tired after the practice sessions today. I felt a little more pain than yesterday but I tried to improve my lap times. It was worth pushing this morning to go directly into Q2; it was a positive thing and a good step forward, but after FP4 I found it hard to regain energy for qualifying. I tried my hardest anyway but the times of the riders in front were very fast, and even behind there were riders in the low 1’30” range. It wasn’t easy for me to reach that level, but I’m happy overall and looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll have to choose well the rear tyre for the race; if tomorrow is cloudy, the choice won’t be so clear, so let’s wait and see. It will be a long race but I hope I can recover more energy and be as fast as possible."