The Repsol Honda rider has had the highs and lows packed into his first in nine races, with the nature of his better results hinting at his capacity to be the main challenger to the Jorge Lorenzo in the battle for this year’s title.Dani Pedrosa’s steady progress towards a consistent results this season has placed the Spaniard second in the Championship standings at the halfway point in the season, where at 138 points he currently sits 72 off the leader Jorge Lorenzo. The first nine rounds have produced some of the fantastic results for the Repsol Honda rider who has so far stood on the podium five times, winning twice, and his finer outcomes have been accompanied by some are frustrations too.
The campaign got off to an indifferent start for the Pedrosa with seventh in the Qatar, where he battled with set-up issues that had carried over from pre-season. Undeterred however he remained focused and the following round at the Jerez produced a solid reward, as he took pole position and battled with Lorenzo for the victory before finishing second.
The inconsistency which was to prove Pedrosa’s main obstacle in the early part of the season meant that he would place in fifth at Le Mans as he lost out on a podium finish on the final lap in his 150th GP start. Another strong response came though and this time it was a victory, from the pole position, at Mugello as the intense work put in by the 24 year-old and his team paid off.
A difficult next round at the Silverstone followed where Pedrosa crashed in qualifying and placed eighth in the race, but a succession of the constant results that produced the continuity he had been striving for then poured forth. Second place at Assen from seventh on the grid and then second in his home race at Catalunya paved the way to a second win of the 2010 at Sachsenring, where Pedrosa won a fight with Lorenzo for victory.
The first half of the campaign was rounded off with a first DNF of the season as Pedrosa crashed out at Laguna Seca whilst leading the race, but he remained optimistic despite the setback as he aims to then continue harnessing the aspects of his performance that have delivered him tastes of victory already.
