Dani Pedrosa returned to competition this weekend and after a Saturday in which he came very close to taking the podium in the Sprint race, it was expected that the Spanish rider would also be competitive in Sunday’s long race.
The start of the race looked like it was going to jeopardize a good result for the #26, but the Spanish rider didn’t give up, and after difficulties in the debrief, he recovered his rhythm to finish in 4th place:
– I had a good race. But right after the start, in the first corner, I almost crashed in front of everyone. I had to warm up my tires as slowly as possible, because for the first 3/4 laps I didn’t have much grip. Then, at that point, the others overtook me and I couldn’t keep up the pace. Honestly, in the first few laps, when my tires regained good grip, I was able to pick up my pace and then Brad (Binder) fell off (…) . So I was always in 4th place.
The KTM test rider also assumed that he was thinking about victory when he started to gain ground on the three Ducati riders in front of him, even though when he got to the back of Franscesco Bagnaia’s bike he was on the limit:
– For a moment, I thought it could happen (to get to the front of the race). I was trying, honestly. There was a moment when the three of them were together and I was closing the gap in the middle of the race. (…) They can start fighting, maybe there’s a chance for us to win here, and even then it’s a long way. We don’t know how the tires will run out for everyone. So it’s better to stay close and I was getting closer. I was closing the gap and then I had a big moment. I lost the gap again. And towards the end of the race Pecco started to struggle a bit. He dropped his pace again and I managed to catch him again in the last 3/4 laps. I was putting pressure on him and when he felt the pressure he started to look back and covered all the braking points and protected his position. And I was on the limit at the end, to be honest.