MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa impressed with Yamaha improvements

World championship leader Dani Pedrosa has been impressed by the major improvements Yamaha has made with its factory YZR-M1 engine in 2008.

The factory Honda rider finished second after a titanic scrap with Italian Valentino Rossi in last weekend’s Chinese MotoGP in Shanghai, where he got ample opportunity to assess the top speed performance of the 2008 Yamaha.

Yamaha is easily the most improved bike on the grid, with engineers solving some of the horsepower and reliability problems that dogged Rossi so much in 2007.

Dani Pedrosa seized the outright lead in the series with his fourth podium in as many races moving him seven-points clear of bitter Spanish rival Jorge Lorenzo.

But while Yamaha has made improvements during the winter, Honda has massive issues in getting its pneumatic valve motor right.

Pedrosa said: “Yamaha has improved a lot because last year we could see they had a lot of engine problems and they were very bad with the slowest bike. 

“This shows that it is not so easy to build a new engine like Honda has tried for this year. But they have worked very hard and they have a very fast and reliable engine.”