Forearm injury to keep Dani Pedrosa out indefinitely

Honda MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa is set to take time away from the track to try and find a solution for a recurring pain in his right forearm.

Madrid: Honda MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa is set to take time away from the track to try and find a solution for a recurring pain in his right forearm.

The Spaniard finished sixth in the first grand prix of the new season in Qatar on Sunday.

However, Pedrosa, who had an operation on the same injury after last season`s Spanish Grand Prix, said he could no longer continue riding until he found a cure for the problem. 

"It is evident that I cannot continue riding in this way because I cannot give my best. I have suffered this situation for a while and it is very difficult to continue competing like this," he said.

"The team know the situation and it has reached the point where I have to look for a solution to the problem once more. I don`t have the answers right now to how it will go, but I need to try and find the way to fix it."

Pedrosa added that he had sought the opinions of numerous doctors in the off-season in an attempt to ease the pain he suffered during last season when he finished fourth in the world championship.

"Since last year I have had a lot of problems in my right forearm and have suffered a lot in silence.

"I have tried everything to fix it. As you know last year I had an operation in the middle of the season which didn`t help men at all.

"The situation last season was very difficult. I had a lot of problems in every race.

"At the end of the year I travelled around the world meeting different doctors to find a solution for my arm. Almost none of them recommended an operation, so I followed their advice trying to improve the arm with some techniques other than an operation."

Despite never winning the world championship, Pedrosa has had a very successful MotoGP career, winning 26 races and finishing runner-up in the championship race three times.

The second grand prix of the campaign takes place in Austin, Texas on April 12. 

"I can't continue racing this way"

Dani Pedrosa dropped a bombshell at the conclusion of the Qatar Grand Prix, announcing that he is putting his career on hold indefinitely until his forearm problems have been completely resolved.

Pedrosa lifted the lid on his injury ordeal: "It is kind of a long story: trying to be quick, basically in this race I had an arm pump issue, which has been there for a whole year. Last year I struggled in every single race, I couldn't really perform well and my results haven't been that good due to this fact. I have been trying all of this time to fix it and improve; it wasn't easy [because] I couldn't really get any good answers".

"I went through one surgery but it wasn't successful. I tried not to talk about it in public; obviously this wasn't easy, but Honda always knew about it. This winter I was travelling all around the world trying to get different opinions from several doctors. Fortunately all the answers recommended me not to have a surgery because of the risk, and I tried to follow this advice, and work a lot in a non-aggressive way".

"Now that this race is over and I can see that I cannot perform as I know I can, I have to decide to find a way to solve this problem. I cannot continue racing and performing this way, so my plan now is to try to fix my arm".

The Spaniard is in the dark about how long he will be out for: "The doctors are in the same point, they don't know what to do. I will try to get rid of this problem. The team knows about it. Not so many answers for the moment, everything is quite uncertain, obviously, but I hope to have news soon"

MotoGP British Grand Prix 2015: Valentino Rossi storms to victory and retakes the lead in the Championship standings

Traditional English weather of grey clouds and spitting rain didn’t stop the British making their way to the Northamptonshire circuit as over 73,000 people roared as nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi started from fourth on the grid to then lead from the second lap to the chequered flag of a wet race.

Going into the twelfth round of the championship, Rossi and teammate Jorge Lorenzo led the championship tied on 211 points. After completing the warm-up lap of what was declared a dry race, every rider returned to the pits immediately to change to their wet-tyred bike so incurred a 30-minute delay and the grid was reset.

Although defending world champion Marc Marquez had won pole position yesterday, it was Lorenzo who charged from the front row of the grid to the first corner, leading the first lap with Marquez on his heels. Rossi maintained fourth place but swiftly climbed to second within the first lap before lunging at the Spaniard on the second lap and stealing the lead.

With the rain coming down harder, Lorenzo quickly lost second place to Marquez and the front pair soon pulled away with a seven second gap to the chasing pack. British rider Cal Crutchlow got a great start from eighth place on his LCR Honda, overtaking Bradley Smith and Dani Pedrosa to eventually take third place from Lorenzo.

The Yamaha factory rider immediately hit back as LCR teammate and rookie Jack Miller, who had a magnificent start to climb up to fifth place, went into the corner too deep sending him straight into Crutchlow’s Honda RC213v and finishing his race there. Crutchlow attempted to carry on, entering the pits briefly and returning to the track only to crash a second time and retire to the pits for good.

With Pramac rider Yonny Hernandez being the first to retire by crashing in the first corner, teammate Danilo Petrucci made his way from 18th position on the grid through the pack to battle with the front runners on his satellite Ducati.

Finding himself incredibly in fourth place after the two LCR Honda’s vacated, Petrucci and compatriot Andrea Dovizioso simultaneously swooped on Movistar Yamaha rider Lorenzo on lap seven to then battle for the last podium position. Repsol Honda’s Pedrosa dropped Lorenzo further back by taking fifth place but the Movistar Yamaha rider soon found the pace to re-pass his compatriot.

On lap twelve, second-place Marquez - barely 0.1 seconds behind Rossi - highsided at turn 1, waving his arms in the air clearly having no idea what caused it, but promoted the two Italians behind to secure podium positions. Lorenzo passed Pedrosa for fourth place and began the chase for the two Ducati’s closing the gap to 1.619 secs but unable to challenge for the last spot and valuable championship points, having to settle with fourth place.

With Crutchlow out of the race, Scott Redding and Bradley Smith were left to fight for the British contingent, crossing the line in fifth and sixth places respectively, with fifth being the best result for Redding this season.

In Moto2 Johann Zarco took victory while defending world champion Tito Rabat and fellow Spaniard Alex Rins fought for the other two positions on the podium, with Rins taking second 2.2 seconds ahead. Englishman Sam Lowes fell from the front row of the grid to ninth position but battled with Tomas Luthi and Anthony West to cross the line in seventh place.

In Moto3, leading the championship standings by 45 points going into the British round, Wiltshire born Danny Kent led from the early in the race, taking the win and extending his lead to 50 points.

The next race will take place at Rossi’s home round of Misano in San Marino on Sunday 12 September. BT Sport 2 exclusively broadcasts all the action.

Lorenzo and Márquez promise another great battle

After the fantastic display which he put on in Brno, Jorge Lorenzo proved that he is still on top form. And so is Marc Marquéz, who ended up just 0.033 seconds slower than Lorenzo after dominating the first free practice session at Silverstone. The pair are promising to stage another battle, with Valentino Rossi off the pace.

It is clearly a circuit which both of them like, and where they have contested first place in a head-to-head in the last two years. This year is shaping up to be the same, unless Rossi can make an impact. The Italian is some way down the pecking order, in amongst the rest of the field. This time he was tenth fastest, almost a second slower than Lorenzo.

The surprise of the day came from Bradley Smith, who finished third fastest ahead of Dani Pedrosa. The Englishman recently celebrated his contract renewal with Tech3 and nearly managed the best time of the day. Pedrosa, meanwhile, came in fourth just two tenths slower than the leader.

Márquez, pole and record at Silverstone

Marc Márquezhad everyone eating his dust at Silverstone. The Spaniard beat the best lap record twice on the English circuit, easily claiming pole position for tomorrow's race.

Already on his first attempt the rider looked dangerous. Redding kept close, but the Catalan was so on form that there was little that could be done to even get near him. He crossed the line with a time of 2:00.564, beating Dani Pedrosa's previous record of 2:00.691. Lorenzo came second, but Pedrosa later managed to out-race him and steal second position off him. As the day wore on, Rossi dropped down to fifth.

In the second attempt, once again Redding kept close to Márquez. This did not faze the Spaniard in the slightest, as he opened up the throttle even more, clocking a time of 2:00.234 and breaking the record yet again. Lorenzo pulled out all the stops and reclaimed his second place, while Pedrosa did well in finishing third. At the last minute, Rossi reacted and will be starting in fourth place. Pol Espargaró, after overtaking his English teammate Smith, came in fifth. A disappointing day for Ducati, passable for Suzuki.