Pedrosa taking it “step by step”

The Repsol Honda rider was back on his RC212V for the first time two weeks to the day after fracturing his collarbone, as he took to the track for the FP1 at the Iveco Australian Grand Prix.

Dani Pedrosa took the next step in his recovery from his fractured collarbone on Friday when he made his return to action in the opening practice session at Phillip Island. The Repsol Honda rider completed just seven laps as he took an understandably cautious approach to testing his comfort level on his factory RC212V in wet conditions.

“The plan today was simply to check my condition on the bike – in these conditions I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. What I can say is that I had some strength to move on the bike and put pressure on the handlebars which is good,” explained the 25 year-old.

“However, I didn’t feel very comfortable with the leathers because they were tight and there was pressure but even with that I could do some laps and tomorrow I will try again – we will go step-by-step. Now it’s quite painful but we will see how the pain goes through the night and tomorrow we will take another step. We knew it wouldn’t be easy but I just hope that the effort is worth it in the end.”

Adverse weather conditions overnight made the first practice on Friday a wet affair and Pedrosa is hoping for an improved physical feeling in Saturday’s second session before qualifying.

“To ride in wet conditions is more smooth than in the dry, but also more risky. The asphalt today was very, very cold and here it’s a problem because on the right hand turns you don’t have any grip at all,” continued Pedrosa. “The hardest point was braking, changing direction and in the right hand corners because I have to stretch my arms a lot, but I hope we can work a little bit on the leathers to make it more comfortable for tomorrow. Afterwards I went to the Clinica Mobile and they told me that now I need to relax the muscles. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”

Pedrosa secured his first Phillip Island premier class podium with third place in last year’s race.