OnBoard at Valencia: Dani Pedrosa’s race start

The special cameras captured the Repsol Honda rider’s blistering start off the grid at the GP Generali de la Comunitat Valencia. Witness his first lap in this motogp.com video!

Dani Pedrosa made one of the starts of the season in the final round of the 2010 campaign at Valencia on Sunday, and the OnBoard cameras caught it all from the Spaniard’s Repsol Honda RC212V machine.

You can review Pedrosa’s fantastic start and first lap in the attached motogp.com video!

2010 season finale in Valencia

The 18th and final round of the 2010 MotoGP World Championship this weekend will see the runner-up spot decided, with the following Official Test offering an immediate taste of what is to come in 2011.

The Ricardo Tormo Circuit hosts the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana this weekend for the 12th year running, and what has since 2002 been the traditional season-ending round. The 18th instalment of the 2010 MotoGP campaign will see runner-up to already-crowned Champion Jorge Lorenzo decided, with Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi the candidates still able to take the honour.

Despite having wrapped up the title with three rounds to spare Lorenzo is still hungry for victories, as proven with his eighth of the season last time out at Estoril. The Fiat Yamaha rider is also on course to set a new record for the highest number of points scored in a single season in the MotoGP class as well as equal a number of other milestones, with the added incentive that Valencia is just one of three circuits on the current calendar at which he has not won in any class. He did finish on the podium last year however and will now aim to go one better.

The man with the most success at the venue is Pedrosa, last year’s race winner and with five victories in total across the premier (twice), 250cc (twice) and 125cc classes. The Repsol Honda rider currently has the best chance of finishing second in the Championship, holding a 19-point advantage over third-placed Rossi, but he is still recovering from his collarbone injury having only made his return to racing in Portugal having sat out three races.

Rossi has winning form at Valencia from 2003 and 2004, but is yet to taste victory on an 800cc machine there. The Italian, along with Lorenzo, will be aiming to deliver Yamaha their first win in the format, and came close last year in finishing second.

Instant improvement in comfort noted by Pedrosa

The Repsol Honda rider felt much better riding his RC212V at the Estoril on Friday as he got his bwin Grande Premio de Portugal weekend underway in less than welcoming weather conditions.

Dani Pedrosa ended the first day of the bwin Grande Premio de Portugal satisfied with how he felt physically, as the Repsol Honda rider continued his recovery from the broken collarbone that has forced him to miss the last three races.

The 25 year-old did ride and qualify for the previous round in the Australia but opted against participating in the race due to the pain caused by his injury, and having had an extra 12 days in which to recuperate he noted an immediately improved feeling in Friday afternoon’s second practice at Estoril.

“Straight away I felt much better on the bike here than I did in Australia and the shoulder has recovered a lot, which is very positive,” said Pedrosa, who along with the majority of the premier class opted against riding in the first practice due to the wet weather conditions.

“I feel a little bit tired now, but basically I feel okay after riding today. It was a pity that we missed the whole practice this morning because of the rain, and also at the beginning of the afternoon session the track conditions were difficult, which limited what we could achieve. To be honest I didn’t feel totally at home on the bike today but I think this is normal after so long without riding, and this situation will improve.”

With the focus on re-establishing his comfort on the bike times were not on Pedrosa’s mind, as he completed 19 laps with a best time of 1’53.592 – just over five seconds off Jorge Lorenzo’s top time.

Pedrosa taking it “step by step”

The Repsol Honda rider was back on his RC212V for the first time two weeks to the day after fracturing his collarbone, as he took to the track for the FP1 at the Iveco Australian Grand Prix.

Dani Pedrosa took the next step in his recovery from his fractured collarbone on Friday when he made his return to action in the opening practice session at Phillip Island. The Repsol Honda rider completed just seven laps as he took an understandably cautious approach to testing his comfort level on his factory RC212V in wet conditions.

“The plan today was simply to check my condition on the bike – in these conditions I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. What I can say is that I had some strength to move on the bike and put pressure on the handlebars which is good,” explained the 25 year-old.

“However, I didn’t feel very comfortable with the leathers because they were tight and there was pressure but even with that I could do some laps and tomorrow I will try again – we will go step-by-step. Now it’s quite painful but we will see how the pain goes through the night and tomorrow we will take another step. We knew it wouldn’t be easy but I just hope that the effort is worth it in the end.”

Adverse weather conditions overnight made the first practice on Friday a wet affair and Pedrosa is hoping for an improved physical feeling in Saturday’s second session before qualifying.

“To ride in wet conditions is more smooth than in the dry, but also more risky. The asphalt today was very, very cold and here it’s a problem because on the right hand turns you don’t have any grip at all,” continued Pedrosa. “The hardest point was braking, changing direction and in the right hand corners because I have to stretch my arms a lot, but I hope we can work a little bit on the leathers to make it more comfortable for tomorrow. Afterwards I went to the Clinica Mobile and they told me that now I need to relax the muscles. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”

Pedrosa secured his first Phillip Island premier class podium with third place in last year’s race.