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




125 cc Motorcycle World Champions
(1949) Nello Pagani · (1950) Bruno Ruffo · (1951) Carlo Ubbiali · (1952) Cecil Sandford · (1953) Werner Haas · (1954) Rupert Hollaus · (1955, 56) Carlo Ubbiali · (1957) Tarquinio Provini · (1958, 59, 60) Carlo Ubbiali · (1961) Tom Phillis · (1962) Luigi Taveri · (1963) Hugh Anderson · (1964) Luigi Taveri  · (1965) Hugh Anderson · (1966) Luigi Taveri  · (1967) Bill Ivy · (1968) Phil Read · (1969) Dave Simmonds · (1970) Dieter Braun · (1971, 72) Ángel Nieto · (1973, 1974) Kent Andersson · (1975) Paolo Pileri · (1976, 77) Pier Paolo Bianchi · (1978) Eugenio Lazzarini · (1979) Ángel Nieto · (1980) Pier Paolo Bianchi · (1981, 82, 83, 84) Ángel Nieto · (1985) Fausto Gresini · (1986) Luca Cadalora · (1987) Fausto Gresini · (1988) Jorge Martínez · (1989) Àlex Crivillé · (1990, 91) Loris Capirossi · (1992) Alessandro Gramigni · (1993) Dirk Raudies · (1994) Kazuto Sakata · (1995, 96) Haruchika Aoki · (1997) Valentino Rossi · (1998) Kazuto Sakata · (1999) Emilio Alzamora · (2000) Roberto Locatelli · (2001) Manuel Poggiali · (2002) Arnaud Vincent · (2003) Dani Pedrosa · (2004) Andrea Dovizioso · (2005) Thomas Lüthi · (2006) Álvaro Bautista · (2007) Gábor Talmácsi


250 cc Motorcycle World Champions
(1949) Bruno Ruffo · (1950) Dario Ambrosini · (1951) Bruno Ruffo · (1952) Enrico Lorenzetti · (1953, 54) Werner Haas · (1955) Hermann Paul Müller · (1956) Carlo Ubbiali · (1957) Cecil Sandford · (1958) Tarquinio Provini · (1959, 60) Carlo Ubbiali · (1961) Mike Hailwood · (1962, 63) Jim Redman · (1964, 65) Phil Read · (1966, 67) Mike Hailwood · (1968) Phil Read · (1969) Kel Carruthers · (1970) Rodney Gould · (1971) Phil Read · (1972) Jarno Saarinen · (1973) Dieter Braun · (1974, 75, 76) Walter Villa · (1977) Mario Lega · (1978, 79) Kork Ballington · (1980, 81) Anton Mang · (1982) Jean-Louis Tournadre · (1983) Carlos Lavado · (1984) Christian Sarron · (1985) Freddie Spencer · (1986) Carlos Lavado · (1987) Anton Mang · (1988, 89) Sito Pons · (1990) John Kocinski · (1991, 92) Luca Cadalora · (1993) Tetsuya Harada · (1994, 95, 96, 97) Max Biaggi · (1998) Loris Capirossi · (1999) Valentino Rossi · (2000) Olivier Jacque · (2001) Daijiro Kato · (2002) Marco Melandri · (2003) Manuel Poggiali · (2004, 05) Dani Pedrosa · (2006, 07) Jorge Lorenzo