Pedrosa doubtful for Qatar opener | MotoGP
- From: TRS Media | Published: March 9th, 2009 - 7:29 am
Dani Pedrosa’s hopes of participating in the MotoGP World Championship opener in Qatar have been thrown into doubt. The Spaniard has had two operations on his left knee and arm, involving a skin graft, after crashing in testing. Surgery on the Repsol Honda rider’s arm was carried out by Dr Xavier Mir, who fears he may miss the 12 April race.
“Turning to the recovery times, we are optimistic, although we cannot commit ourselves to being ready for the first race,” said Dr Mir.
“We will take all the relevant steps to speed his recovery, and even though we cannot say whether he will be ready for the first race we do not rule anything out.”
Pedrosa was released from the USP Institut Universitari Dexeus hospital after 72 hours on Saturday, and he is still hopeful of being on the grid for the Qatar season-opener.
“We are planning to work hard and so be ready for the first race in Qatar, but when the day arrives we will have to see whether I am really in perfect shape to get on the bike,” said Pedrosa.
The soonest the Spaniard will be able to bend his knee properly will be in a month, ruling the former world championship runner-up out of the final pre-season test at Jerez on 28 March. The Spaniard also required knee surgery at the end of 2008, and as a result has only managed three complete days of testing so far this year. This will be the second year running that Pedrosa’s pre-season has been upset by injury. Last year he needed a titanium plate inserted into his hand after crashing in Malaysia.
His absence from testing meant the task of developing the Honda RC212V fell to then-teammate Nicky Hayden; this year, it will be new partner Andrea Dovizioso’s job to get the bike ready for the new season.
