Dani Pedrosa:
“I’m really happy to be signing with Honda again. This has been the team of my dreams since I was a kid and that’s still the same feeling I have now. We’ve had a long and successful relationship already and we believe together we can have even more success in the future. Over many years we have built up a very strong relationship and have enjoyed the successes and faced the difficulties together. We are at a good moment now and we must try to continue in this way. Our goal of course is to fight for victories every weekend and win the MotoGP World Championship. I believe we have what it takes to do both of those things.”

This Spaniard sign more two years with Honda Racing Team. It means that Dani Pedrosa will still using RC212V for next 2 years. Until this week, Pedrosa had a good relationship with Honda and brought brought three World Championships, 35 Grand Prix victories in all classes and 12 MotoGP wins - including victories at the last two races.

Tetsuo Suzuki, HRC President:
"We are very pleased that Dani Pedrosa has re-signed to be a factory Honda rider, thus extending his longstanding and successful partnership with HRC. Dani is clearly at the peak of his powers and has gelled with the RC212V to create a formidable combination. We believe his relationship with the machine and the team will continue to grow and that he will mount an extremely strong challenge for the MotoGP World title over the next two seasons."

Hey, did you know that HRC president last name was Suzuki?

After success on the two races before, Pedrosa still continuing his progress with gaining 1st at the FP1 at Aragon. The Repsol Honda rider set a best time of 1'50.506 on the new circuit as he continued his superb form after 45-minutes session.

Pedrosa lead 0.411s ahead of Ducati's Nicky Hayden and the Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo was on third behind Nicky Hayden. Casey Stoner was next up on the timesheet as he took his Desmosedici GP10 round in the fourth best time of the session, and with an effort of 1'51.195 was the last rider within a second of Pedrosa. Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) was the fastest rookie in fifth with a 1'51.768, just a thousandth of a second ahead of fellow Italian and reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha).

Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar) put in an impressive penultimate lap to end seventh, whilst Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), Colin Edwards and Ben Spies (both Monster Yamaha Tech 3) completed the top ten.
There was one fall during the session as Aleix Espargaró suffered an early high-side on only his second lap. The Pramac Racing rider fell victim to a cold tyre as he crashed at turn two and fortunately escaped injury, returning to the track shortly after and setting the 13th fastest time.

OTOMOTIFNET - Setelah di sepakatinya kontrak kerjasama antara tim Repsol Honda dengan Dani Pedrosa untuk dua tahun ke depan, berarti tim ini sudah memiliki dua orang pembalap yang akan memperkuat tim untuk dua musim ke depan. Yaitu Casey Stoner dan Dani Pedrosa. Walaupun pernah terlontar kabar bahwa Honda akan menaungi tiga pembalap dalam satu tim pabrikan, namun rasanya cukup mustahil.

Ini berarti Andrea Dovizioso yang menjadi rekan setim Pedrosa saat ini, harus hengkang ke tim lain, seperti Honda Gresini yang merupakan tim satelit Honda di MotoGP. Namun ternyata tidak semudah itu, Dovi dikabarkan ogah hengkang ke tim Gresini karena hubungannya dengan Fausto Gresini dan Marco Simoncelli sedang buruk.

“Alasannya utama sebenarnya bukan itu, tapi karena saya memiliki kontrak dengan tim ini dan saya ingin tinggal di tim ini. Gresini adalah salah satu tim satelit yang cukup kompetitif, dan saya tidak memiliki masalah dengan Simoncelli. Yang jelas kami akan mencari solusinya, mungkin agak sulit bernaung di bawah pabrikan dengan sponsor yang berbeda, namun saya rasa tidak ada hal yang tidak mungkin,” jelas Dovizioso.

Apa yang diinginkan oleh Dovi untuk tetap dengan rencana awal, yaitu berada di bawah naungan tim pabrikan dengan sponsor yang berbeda yaitu Red Bull Honda, tentunya bukan hal mudah. Apalagi kesepakatan dengan Red Bull untuk membentuk tim ini belum ada kepastian. Jadi, satu-satunya solusi adalah pindah ke Gresini atau memilih Rizla Suzuki yang masih mempunyai kursi kosong.

“Kami masih mendiskusikan segala sesuatunya dengan tim Honda, karena kami masih ingin tinggal lebih lama dengan Honda. Tapi jika tidak ada kesepakatan yang jelas mengenai hal ini, tentunya kami ingin membuka diri terhadap semua kemungkinan yang ada,” pungkas Dovi.

Apakah kemungkinan yang dimaksud Dovi adalah tim Rizla Suzuki? Kita tunggu saja.

Penulis : Uda