Dani Pedrosa to ride in Assen

Spaniard Dani Pedrosa will be back in action in this weekend’s Dutch GP in Assen.

MCN understands that Honda seriously considered withdrawing the Spaniard from the Holland clash to give him more time to recover from serious muscle damage in his right hip suffered in the recent Italian GP.

With the 23-year-old trailing joint championship leaders Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner by a massive 39-points, it was rumoured that Pedrosa might skip Assen and return in Laguna Seca, with his world title hopes effectively over.

But a plucky Pedrosa has confirmed he will partner Andrea Dovizioso in Assen having taken complete rest since he rode to a brave sixth place in Catalunya earlier this month.

The triple world champion said: “Since the race in Barcelona I’ve basically been resting, trying to give my hip as much chance to improve as possible. Obviously there hasn’t been a lot of time – just over one week – but I certainly feel a lot better now than immediately after the last race when I was totally exhausted.”

“I’m feeling positive about the weekend and we’ll just have to see how it goes when riding starts on Thursday. My intention would be to ride without receiving any pain-killing injections because gradually they lose their effectiveness and they are not something I want to rely on. We’ll see how the feeling is when I start to ride.”