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Ducati might have monopolized the podium at Misano with Martin, Bezzecchi and Bagnaia, but it was Dani Pedrosa who caught the attention at the weekend on the Riviera, where he scored two fourth places aboard the RC16, in his second wildcard race of the season. A performance that highlighted, once again, all the class and talent of the KTM test rider, who came one step away from the podium at the tender age of 37 and six seasons after his last MotoGP championship, which was in 2018 with Honda colours.
Thinking about Honda’s current situation, historic rival Jorge Lorenzo could not help but underline the missed opportunity by the Tokyo manufacturer, which let Pedrosa slip away after 18 years spent together in MotoGP. As a result, allowing Dani to join KTM, for which he has held the role of test rider since 2019.
“Under the same circumstances that Honda has faced in the last four or five years, including Marquez's injury, I'm sure they would go infinitely better if they had Dani as a test rider,” said the five-time champion, analysing the Catalan's performance on DAZN.
“The merits he has throughout history are enormous. I have never seen such a small rider achieve so many victories in MotoGP, it has never happened, which shows the technique he had to develop to do it. On a technical, intelligence and feeling level, Pedrosa is a super sensitive rider who helps a lot to understand which components are right and which are wrong. He proved it in KTM and Honda lost a lot when he left,” added the Majorcan.
While KTM's performance has improved in recent seasons, so much so that the Austrian manufacturer now occupies second position in the Manufacturers' standings, 182 points from the top (occupied by Ducati with 416 points), Honda’s has in fact progressively declined after Marc's injury in 2020. To the point of relegating the Japanese company to fourth place in the ranking, on equal points with Yamaha and 311 points off the top.
Few people know Pedrosa and Marquez better than Lorenzo, protagonist of numerous battles with the two Catalans. From the height of his experience Jorge therefore wanted to explain why Dani's expertise would have been suitable for Honda, despite already having a champion like Marc among its ranks.
“In principle Marquez can be stronger than Dani, more champion or faster, even if not on all circuits, but Dani, in terms of technique and sensitivity, has had to become a rider extremely sensitive to all the small details, and in this respect he is without a doubt one of the best - he concluded - To be a good test rider, technique and sensations in the saddle are more important than speed".
