Pedrosa grateful for two-week break

Pedrosa grateful for two-week break - Racer

Dani Pedrosa says he is grateful for the two-week break between the US GP and this weekend's Czech MotoGP event, following the Spaniard's injury-strewn start to the season.

Pedrosa was still recovering from his broken collarbone and its complications during the Laguna Seca weekend, and faded to a distant third in the race behind team-mate Casey Stoner and world champion Jorge Lorenzo.

But he says that the summer break has energized him and that he is now ready to be competitive through until the end of the season.

"These two and a half weeks have flown by for me, but I really enjoyed this break," he said. "The truth is that I needed it, first of all to rest after the last few races that were physically hard for me but also to disconnect a little and to train, to get back my physical strength and be fit again. My holidays have been a combination of all.

"When I got back from Laguna I spent some days doing nothing just to relax the whole area of the neck, arms and back. After this I've been combining physical training with relaxation exercises to avoid over stressing the area.

"Now I'm looking forward to competing again and enjoying the races until the end of the season. The bike is working very well this year so I hope we can get good results and win races in this second half of the championship."

Pedrosa, like many riders, holds Brno as one of his favourite stops on the calendar and added that there was extra motivation for looking forward to this year's visit.

"Brno is a track I like, I've won there in 125 and 250, and I've had some podiums also in MotoGP so to fight for the victory is a challenge for me and I'm very motivated," he said. "I'm also looking forward to the test at Brno with the 1000cc bike. I missed the first one in Jerez due to the injury and I'm excited to see to see how the new bike works."


This article originally appeared in Autosport.com

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Repsol Honda Team Ready For Laguna Seca Challenge

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Repsol Honda Team Ready For Laguna Seca Challenge - londonbikers.com

After an exciting race in Germany that saw Dani Pedrosa's second win of the season, Casey Stoner's eighth podium from nine races and another strong display from Andrea Dovizioso, the Repsol Honda Team heads immediately to America for the tenth round of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship. The U.S Grand Prix will bring to an end the busiest period of the season with six races held in the last eight weeks, and will demand the rider's last efforts before the summer break.

The Laguna Seca circuit has been a good destination for the Repsol Honda Team since the Californian track regained its position on the MotoGP calendar in 2006, after a ten year absence.

Casey Stoner and Laguna Seca make a good combination. The Australian has achieved two pole positions, one victory and three podiums in five outings and retains the best lap record in Laguna (1'20.700 thanks to his pole in 2008) and the circuit record from last year (1'21.376).

Dani Pedrosa's debut in Laguna Seca was also impressive. The Spaniard was second in 2006, on his first visit to this demanding track, and took the victory in 2009 becoming the first Spanish rider in history to win in Laguna.

Andrea Dovizioso will be aiming to step up and fight for a podium that he has narrowly missed twice, in 2010 and 2008, finishing fourth on both occasions.

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Hayden unsure of Laguna Seca GP11.1 debut

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Hayden unsure of Laguna Seca GP11.1 debut - BSN

Marlboro Ducati's Nicky Hayden is still unsure whether he should race the new GP11.1 at this weekend't Laguna Seca MotoGP round as it may end up costing him a precious engine from his already depleted allocation of six to last to the end of the year.

He had hoped to ride the bike at the Sachsenring but a shortage of parts meant only team-mate Valentino Rossi did that. Hayden beat the nine-time world champion but says Laguna Seca is now getting bumpy and isn't an ideal place to be doing back-to-back tests.

"We're going to send both bikes and we might try one of the new ones because we're not really getting anywhere. At the the end of the day, Vale and I are basically the same, I don't think there is a whole lot of difference but he definitely feels there is more potential with the new one and so do the engineers. The sooner we get going on it the better it will be for the end of the year and the start of next," said the American.

"We will send them but I don't know which one to ride. The only way to be clear is to go with two of each, not one of each so we can do a back-to-back test. Laguna is not an easy track to be testing bikes though but is a track I love. The gap to the front is a lot, I got beat in Germany by 27 seconds and I was riding hard. Pushing hard to get beaten by that much definitely stings."

"We can try both on Friday and for Saturday have two the same but the problem is if I leave the pits on the new one and I don't like it I have used another engine. We have got a lot of stuff going against us and it's not an ideal situation."

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