Dani Pedrosa

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Daniel "Dani" Pedrosa Ramal (born September 29, 1985 in Sabadell, Spain) is a Grand Prix motorcycle racer [1]. Pedrosa grew up in a village near Sabadell called Castellar del Vallès. He is the youngest world champion in 125cc and 250cc Grands Prix. Pedrosa stands 1.58m (5ft, 2in) tall and weighs 51kg (112.4lbs).

Career

Early days

The catalan Dani Pedrosa started riding bikes at the early age of four, when he got his first motorcycle, an Italjet 50, which had side-wheels. His first racing bike was a minibike replica of Kawasaki, which he got at the age of six and which he used to race with his friends. Pedrosa experienced real racing at the age of 11, when he entered the Spanish Minibike Championship and ended his debut season in second place, scoring his first podium finish in the second race of the season. The next year, Pedrosa entered the same championship, but health problems prevented him from improving his results and he ended that season in 3rd position.

125cc

In 2001, Pedrosa made his World Championship debut in the 125cc class after being selected from the Movistar Activa Cup, a series designed to promote fresh racing talent in Spain, back in 1999. Under the guidance of Albert Puig, Pedrosa scored two podium finishes in the first season and won his first race the following year, when he finished third in the championship. In 2003, he won five races and won the championship with two rounds remaining, scoring 223 points. In his first championship winning year, Pedrosa scored five victories and six podium finishes. A week after winning the championship, eighteen year old Pedrosa broke both of his ankles in a practice crash at Phillip Island (Australia), ending his season.

250cc

After winning the 125cc Championship, Pedrosa moved up to the 250cc class in 2004 without a proper test on the new bike because his ankles were healing during the off-season. Going into the season unprepared, Pedrosa won the first race in South Africa and went on to clinch the 250cc World Championship title, including rookie of the year honours. In his first season in 250cc class, Pedrosa scored 7 victories and 13 podium finishes. Pedrosa decided to stay for one more season in 250cc class, and he won another title, once again with two races remaining in championship. In 2005, Pedrosa won 8 races and scored 14 podium finishes, despite a shoulder injury he sustained in practice session for Japanese Grand Prix.

MotoGP

Dani Pedrosa on board the Repsol Honda RC211V.

Pedrosa made the move to 990cc MotoGP bikes in 2006, still riding for Honda. Critics said that Pedrosa wasn't big enough or strong enough to successfully race MotoGP. He finished second in the opening round at Jerez on March 26, 2006. At his fourth ever MotoGP appearance, on May 14, 2006, during the Chinese Grand Prix race weekend held in Shanghai, he won his first MotoGP race.

He won his second MotoGP race at Donington Park and became a strong candidate for the MotogGP Championship. It was a memorable victory for Dani, who shared the podium first time with Valentino Rossi in 2nd place. He also took 2 pole positions in the first half of the season.

Until the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, Pedrosa was 2nd in the Championship only behind his more experienced team-mate Nicky Hayden. However, he fell heavily during Free Practice and suffered a severe gash to the knee; which practically rendered him immobile. Pedrosa qualified 5th on the grid in that race due to the cancellation of the qualifying session proper (heavy rainfall). He miraculously managed to finish 3rd in that race, only behind Rossi and Ducati rider Loris Capirossi. However, in the next races, his form dropped and he struggled with the bike; moving him down to 5th place in the MotoGP standings.

His poor performance continued at Estoril. After a promising start, he briefly ran 2nd before being passed by Colin Edwards and then championship leader and teammate Nicky Hayden. On lap 5, he and Hayden were involved in a crash. Pedrosa slid and crashed out of the race, taking out Hayden on the way. This crash ended his slim chances of winning the championship and also caused Hayden to lose his lead in the championship standings, as Rossi managed to finish 2nd.

However, two weeks later, Hayden recovered to win the championship while Pedrosa managed to finish in 3rd place. This result clinched his 5th place in overall standings in his debut season, thus taking the title as Rookie of the Year in MotoGP category, beating fellow rookie and former rival in 250 cc Stoner.

At the final (post 2006 season) three day test of 2006 at Jerez Spain, Dani put his 800 cc RC212V at the top of the timesheets (on qualifying tyres) edging out Valentino Rossi by 0.214 seconds. Rossi had been fastest for the first two days of the test. Dani set a time of 1min 39.910 sec around the circuit.

Pedrosa has continued to race with Honda in 2007 and 2008, on their Honda RC212V, the new 800 cc bike for the new season.

Career statistics

By Seasons

Seas	Class	Moto	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
2001	125cc	Honda RS125R	16	0	2	0	0	100	8th	-
2002	125cc	Honda RS125R	16	3	9	6	2	243	3rd	-
2003	125cc	Honda RS125R	14	5	6	3	3	223	1st	1
2004	250cc	Honda RS250RW	16	7	13	4	8	317	1st	1
2005	250cc	Honda RS250RW	16	8	11	5	7	309	1st	1
2006	MotoGP	Honda RC211V	17	2	8	4	4	215	5th	-
2007	MotoGP	Honda RC212V	18	2	8	5	3	242	2nd	-
Total			113	27	57	27	27	1649		3

By class

Class	Seas	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pole	FLap	Pts	WChmp
125 cc	2001-2003	2001 Japan	2001 Valencia	2002 Dutch	46	8	17	9	5	566	1
250 cc	2004-2005	2004 S. Africa	2004 S. Africa	2004 S. Africa	32	15	24	9	15	626	2
MotoGP	2006-2007	2006 Spain	2006 Spain	2006 China	35	4	16	9	7	457	0
Total	2001-2007				113	27	57	27	27	1649	3

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Yr	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Final Pos	Pts
2001	125 cc	Honda	JPN 18	SAF 13	SPA 10	FRA 17	ITA 23	CAT 7	NED Ret	GBR 12	GER 11	CZE 8	POR 5	VAL 3	PAC 3	AUS 7	MAL 4	BRA Ret			8th	100
2002	125 cc	Honda	JPN 8	SAF 3	SPA 4	FRA 3	ITA 4	CAT 2	NED 1	GBR 2	GER 7	CZE 2	POR 10	BRA Ret	PAC 1	MAL 3	AUS 5	VAL 1			3rd	243
2003	125 cc	Honda	JPN 8	SAF 1	SPA 4	FRA 1	ITA 2	CAT 1	NED 8	GBR Ret	GER 4	CZE 1	POR 4	BRA 4	PAC 6	MAL 1	AUS Inj	VAL Inj			1st	223
2004	250 cc	Honda	SAF 1	SPA Ret	FRA 1	ITA 2	CAT 2	NED 2	BRA 2	GER 1	GBR 1	CZE 3	POR 4	JPN 1	QAT 2	MAL 1	AUS 4	VAL 1			1st	317
2005	250 cc	Honda	SPA 1	POR 4	CHN 6	FRA 1	ITA 1	CAT 1	NED 2	GBR 4	GER 1	CZE 1	JPN 2	MAL Ret	QAT 4	AUS 1	TUR 2	VAL 1			1st	309
2006	MotoGP	Honda	SPA 2	QAT 6	TUR 14	CHN 1	FRA 3	ITA 4	CAT Ret	NED 3	GBR 1	GER 4	USA 2	CZE 3	MAL 3	AUS 15	JPN 7	POR Ret	VAL 4		5th	215
2007	MotoGP	Honda	QAT 3	SPA 2	TUR Ret	CHN 4	FRA 4	ITA 2	CAT 3	GBR 8	NED 4	GER 1	USA 5	CZE 4	SMR Ret	POR 2	JPN Ret	AUS 4	MAL 3	VAL 1	2nd	242

External links

• MotoGP en Portalmix News, photos and videos relating to Dani Pedrosa
• Blog about Dani Pedrosa (in Spanish and English).
• Official Dani Pedrosa website (in Spanish and English).
• Dani Pedrosa biography on HighRevs.net
• Dani Pedrosa Fan Site (in English, Spanish and Catalan)