Jerez MotoGP: Honda still not competitive, says Dani Pedrosa

Dani Pedrosa has played down his hopes of victory in this weekend’s Spanish GP in Jerez, the Repsol Honda rider insisting his factory RC212V is still not competitive enough.

The triple world champion gave himself a massive morale boost last weekend in Japan when he rode to a brilliant third place at the Twin Ring Motegi.

The Spaniard was able to battle for second with reigning world champion Valentino Rossi until the decisive stages of the 24-lap race, though he is refusing to get carried away by the podium finish in the Far East.

Assessing his prospects of a second successive MotoGP victory in front of his home crowd in Jerez, the 23-year-old said: “It was great to get such an encouraging result in Japan right before we go to Jerez because now we have some momentum which we must try to maintain. Still, despite getting on the podium at Motegi, which I was really pleased with, we mustn’t kid ourselves that we are fully competitive just yet.

We struggled quite a lot in the practice sessions at Motegi and we’re under no illusions that we have to keep working hard to bring our package up to its full potential. Having said that, I’m really looking forward to Jerez and it’s always a very special experience for me to race there.

Pedrosa has an incredible record at Jerez having never finished outside the top two since his MotoGP debut in 2006.