Clutch and brake problems for Pedrosa

Dani Pedrosa crashed on race day morning in Assen and had to settle for eighth at the flag after a difficult day at the Dutch TT.

The crash left his preferred race bike badly damaged and at the start with his spare bike he had a dreadful start after a clutch problem and then suffered brake issues.

“After I crashed in the warmup I had to change my race bike,” explained Pedrosa. “Then I used my second bike. When I started, the clutch didn’t disengage. When I started moving  I got a lot of spin on the clutch, so I got no drive out of the start. The bike also had some brake problems, had some air in the brakes, or some kind of issue on the brakes so I had no brakes, basically.

“So I was very back in the pack, and I couldn’t really do anything in the fast corners. I was really struggling and I was riding very afraid, because the guys were in front and in some corners I had some brakes, and in some corners I was full in [the lever coming back to the bars]. I was adjusting all the time, but anyway, I couldn’t make any progress, and that was the race.”