Honda “not super-ready” for start of MotoGP season - Pedrosa
Dani Pedrosa admits the Repsol Honda team won't be fully prepared for the start of the MotoGP season next weekend in Qatar, following a troubled winter.
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team
Repsol Media
While Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo ended last week’s final pre-season test at Losail on top, factory Honda duo Marc Marquez and Pedrosa ended up fourth and 14th respectively as their struggles aboard the new RC213V continued.
And although Marquez struck an upbeat note, claiming to have seen “light at the end of the tunnel”, Pedrosa was less confident about Honda’s prospects after a particularly subdued final day of testing.
“Today we didn’t improve much,” admitted the Spaniard. “We had no [fresh] tyres left, so we couldn’t do much testing and I finished earlier than usual.
“We didn’t improve the bike a lot, so it’s a little bit uncertain now. We need to try some more things for the race, we’ll see what we can bring there.
“At the moment it’s difficult. We are not super-ready, but we will do our best to see what we can do.”
Struggles at "every track"
Pedrosa was closer to the pace on Thursday, finishing only four tenths shy of pacesetter Maverick Vinales in seventh, but still conceded Honda was struggling at “every track” it had visited.
“[On Thursday] we didn’t start well, at the beginning I had some issue with one tyre,” said Pedrosa. “So I had to change, then I lost the rhythm, which took me a long time to find again.
“But I did more than half a race [distance] with the tyre, so I’m getting some experience.
“The feeling is not as good as we wanted, we have been struggling at every track we have been to, but we have to be positive and improve step-by-step.”
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