Dani Pedrosa was close to the podium in the Sprint race of the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix. Qualifying in the rain relegated him to 16th place on the grid, but he gradually recovered positions up to fourth place – finishing just behind Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha).
The Red Bull KTM Spanish rider explained what hindered him in qualifying: ‘Qualifying today was a bit difficult because it was the first time I rode this bike in the rain, so we lacked some things to be on point – like the setup and mapping. I was trying because it was qualifying and we didn’t have time to actually set up the bike. I saw some possibilities, but in the end it wasn’t possible for me to ride in the 1m47s, which was the necessary lap time. And I had a strange feeling with the tires. I couldn’t do better than 16th place on the grid‘.
The qualifying result was compromising, but Pedrosa had a good start and then witnessed several crashes and opted for a more cautious approach: ‘Starting in that position is never a good place, but today the race was particular because the track was wet in some areas, so we had to be very careful with the wet parts and it was very easy to widen a bit and touch the wet spots and then fall. I had a decent start, I did the first two corners more or less well. I think I was around 13th behind Fabio. I wanted to overtake him immediately in the first two laps, but I saw a crash, then the next lap another crash, then the next lap another crash, and I said: “Maybe just not attack too much because maybe the tires aren’t ready or the track is tricky, so, go step by step”‘.
With so many incidents ahead and the focus on Quartararo, the “Little Samurai” ended up losing track of his position and didn’t know he was fighting for the podium in the end, as he revealed: ‘I stayed behind Fabio throughout the race, but every two or three laps two riders were out, three riders were out, another rider was out. So I didn’t know my position because when I was passing on the straight I was trying to overtake Fabio and I always passed on this side and couldn’t see my dashboard very well. I was monitoring my distance and couldn’t read my position. So, on the last lap, I didn’t know we were in third and fourth, in fact, I thought we were in sixth and seventh. So, I said, “Well, it’s the last lap, don’t try too hard and just finish the race.” It’s a shame, because we missed the podium by 0.050s. But anyway, I accept this great result because we started from 16th, it’s usually a special race situation and I think we had a smart race‘.
