Dani Pedrosa came close to the podium in the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix Sprint race. Qualifying in the rain pushed him to 16th place on the starting grid, but he gradually regained positions to finish fourth, just behind Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha).
The Red Bull KTM rider explained what hindered him in qualifying: ‘The qualifying was a bit difficult today, because it was the first time I was riding this bike on the wet, so we were missing some things to be on the point – such as the setting and mapping. I was trying because it was qualifying and we had no time actually to set-up the bike. I saw some chances, but at the end it was not possible for me to ride in 1m47s, which was the lap time needed. And I had a strange feeling with the tyres. I couldn’t do better than the 16th place on the grid’.
The qualifying result was compromising, but Pedrosa had a good start and then witnessed several crashes, opting for a more cautious approach: ‘Starting on that position is never a good spot, but today the race was particular because the track was damp in some areas, so we had to take care a lot of the wet patches and it was very easy to go a little bit wider and touch the wet spots and then crash. I did a decent start, I went around the first two corners more or less good. I think I was P13 more or less and I was already behind Fabio. I wanted to overtake him immediatly in the first two laps, but I saw one crash, then in the next lap another crash, then in the next lap another crash, and I said: «Maybe just don’t push too much, because maybe the tyres are not ready or the track is tricky, so go step by step»’.
With so many incidents ahead and his focus on Quartararo, the «Little Samurai» eventually lost track of his position and didn’t realize he was fighting for the podium at the end, as he revealed: ‘I stayed behind Fabio for all the race, but every two or three laps, two guys off, three guys off, another guy off. So I didn’t know my position anymore because when I was passing in the straight line I was trying to overtake Fabio and I always passed on this side and I didn’t see very well my board. I was controlling my gap and I couldn’t read the position. So in the last lap I didn’t know we were P3 and P4, I thought actually we were P6 and P7. So I said, «OK, it’s the last lap, don’t try too much and just finish the race». It’s a shame because we missed the podium for 0.050s. But anyway I take this great result because we started 16th, normally is a special race situation and I think we did a smart race’.