Pedrosa shows top pace at Aragon

The Repsol Honda rider equaled his best result of the season so far…since he topped testing in Thailand…

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) began this season – subsequently revealed to be his last in MotoGP™ – with some serious pace in testing, but after an early season injury and some struggles since, it’s been a tougher year. At MotorLand Aragon, however, the ‘Little Samurai’ was back at the sharp end on successful hunting ground and he eventually crossed the line fifth – equaling his best result of the season so far, taken at both Le Mans and Catalunya.

“Today in the race everything went quite well, we were able to start in the front group and I was able to make some passes,” began Pedrosa. “But the hard rear had no grip and after the Moto2 race the asphalt wasn’t so grippy, so I had a lot of rear sliding.”

That was the key issue, and he thinks maybe it would have been better to make a different compromise and use a different compound: “It looks like maybe the soft would have been my better option, you have to manage that but I wasn’t able to carry the corner speed and accelerate out of turns with the hard,” explains the number 26. “That created a gap and I wasn’t able to stay in the group. I think with a bit better grip on the rear though I could have been fighting for the podium or the win.”

That’s a positive sign as we head from MotorLand – where Pedrosa has a good record – to Buriram, where no one has a record as yet…but Dani Pedrosa topped testing. Will we see the Repsol Honda rider back on the rostrum next time out? Find out from the 5th to 7th October.

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