Arriving second in the provisional general classification at the Italian Grand Prix, Dani only left in fifth position after being beaten by Andrea Dovizioso, Valentino Rossi and his teammate Marc Marquez. The race could hardly have gone worse for Pedrosa, although he started from fifth position on the starting grid.
Seventh in the first round, he was then overtaken Alvaro Bautista, Andrea Iannone and Johann zarco. It was then Michele Pirro's turn to pass it, then Cal Crutchlow. Then twelfth, Dani tried to resist the Briton on the Honda LCR, but he crashed on the last lap and dragged Crutchlow with him to the ground. At home in Barcelona, Pedrosa will therefore be very motivated to restore his image which shone brightly during his recent victory at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Montmelo route was modified following Luis Salom's tragic accident last year. The F1 hairpin is now used in turn 10 and a new chicane has been introduced after turn 13 (before the chicane used for F1). The new, slightly shorter runway length is 4 meters (previously 652 meters).
Dani Pedrosa has three victories in Catalonia, one in 125 (2003), one in 250 (2005) and one in MotoGP (2008), plus 9 additional podiums and 3 poles. Marc Marquez and Dani were united on the podium three times: in 2013 (Dani 2nd and Marc 3rd), 2014 (Marc 1st and Dani 3rd) and 2016 (Marc 2nd and Dani 3rd).
For Dani Pedrosa, “I'm looking forward to going to Montmeló because I really like the track and of course the atmosphere with my fan club and all the fans is always amazing!
“We will work hard to get back to the level we were at before Mugello and try to make good use of the information we gathered during the test we carried out in Montmeló in May, which was very positive.
“In addition to working on the configuration, during the test we had the chance to try the new chicane and the changes made to the track which is narrower than before in this sector, although the lap times are similar with those of the past.
“The surface is really bumpy and that will also be a factor to take into account. We are ready to give our 100% to achieve a good result! »
Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez in a hot air balloon:
