Motegi MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa nearing 100 per cent fitness

Dani Pedrosa is confident he will be much closer to 100 per cent fitness for this weekend’s Japanese GP at the Twin Ring Motegi.

The Spaniard missed most of winter testing when he suffered left leg and wrist injuries in a high-side crash in Qatar.

He won his battle to be fit for the first MotoGP race under Qatar’s floodlights earlier this month and finished in a creditable 11th place.

Looking ahead to Honda’s home race at the Twin Ring Motegi this weekend, Pedrosa said: “I’m looking forward to this weekend in Japan. My leg is improving all the time and the knee is gaining a little bit more mobility every day.

“I don’t have the full range of movement yet, but I think that by the time we get to Motegi I’ll have about ten degrees more of movement than in Qatar, which should make quite a big difference.

“My elbow is also getting better after the hit (Alex) de Angelis gave me in Qatar – there’s still some pain and stiffness but I hope it won’t be a problem in Japan.

“My priority is still to reach full fitness so that I can ride at 100 per cent, and then we must focus on the machine because I missed out on quite a lot of winter testing and we’re still not at the level we’d like to be.

“It’s a case of taking things one step at time – first to get full fitness and then improve the bike step by step.”