MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa keen to gauge broken hand progress

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa has said he is keen to check how much his broken right hand has recovered when he returns to action tomorrow (Saturday) for the opening day of the IRTA test session in Jerez.

Speaking at the official launch of the 2008 Repsol Honda team in Zaragoza yesterday (Thursday), the triple world champion said: “We’ll see how the recovery on my hand is doing, and then there will be very important tests for me.

“I’ll be able to check my physical form and see if I can push hard or not. Depending on the result, then maybe we’ll dedicate more time to all the work we couldn’t do this last winter.”

The opening day will be the first time Dani Pedrosa has been on his Honda RC212V since he broke his hand in two places on the opening day of 2008 winter testing in Sepang last month.

At a special presentation to launch the team in Spain, Pedrosa portrayed a united front from Honda’s struggling official factory team.

Pedrosa recently criticised Nicky Hayden again for the American’s lack of development skills, while Honda is under severe pressure after the dismal early performance of a pneumatic valve motor.

But Dani Pedrosa said: “Both Nicky and I are definitely going to try to do the most for our team, and as you can see, we’ve both been in the top places in many races, and that’s a point in our favour.