Pedrosa Pulls Out of Australian Grand Prix

Henny Ray Abrams | October 16, 2010

PHILLIP ISLAND, AUSTRALIA, OCT 16 – Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa won’t line up in Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix after discovering he wasn’t able to ride well enough during a windy qualifying session.The Spaniard came to Australia nursing the surgically repaired left collarbone he’d broken in the Japanese Grand Prix two weeks earlier. He was hopeful of being able to control the Honda RC212V, but a combination of the fast Phillip Island circuit and blustery winds made his task impossible. So the Spaniard decided to head back to Barcelona to continue his recovery with the aim of being stronger for the final two races, in Estoril and Valencia, and the post-Valencia test.Pedrosa said that in Saturday’s wet/dry practice, “it was pretty smooth. I couldn’t judge properly. But today in the dry I push. I see I was lapping very slow. I almost couldn’t heat the tires and that’s the situation. We talked with, I talked with (team manager) Yamano in HRC. He had the same opinion. So it has not so much chance to risk two or three points for nothing.”The physical limitations were different for every corner. “Depending on the corner and how I move on the bike, but of course the collarbone feels strange and painful. But the most problem I have is that lap by lap I lose my strength and with….these fast corners I just cannot stand properly on my bike and this something very risky.”He said that “of course” he’d like to race. “It’s not an easy decision. But I think it has more sense than risking a crash tomorrow or something else.”

Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor

Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.