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As soon as Dani Pedrosa intersected the line at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix in top place, (only 0.344s ahead of World
Champion Rossi), it was the Spaniard's primary win in over 12 months, finally bringing a conclusion to a year of woes.
Over that time, Pedrosa smashed out of the race front at Sachsenring, injuring his hand. He also damaged his
leg with another crash at Phillip Island, wounded himself in pre-season testing, harmed his hip whilst endured another DNF
at Mugello, unfortunately crashing out once more at Assen.
After extensive phases of physiotherapy, operations
and irregular stage appearances, Pedroas has endured a difficult period, lacking also in practice time.
Mike Leitner,
Repsol Honda rider's crew chief and their tight team never lost confidence in Pedrosa during the difficult period, eventually
coming to a generous conclusion last weekend.
“The close group around him never lost confidence in him,”
Leitner explains. “Sure people outside think, ‘what’s going on?’, because they don’t know
how bad the damage is to the rider. I mean in Mugello and Barcelona he was really suffering and the Assen race was an extra
blow, so it shows this Laguna result was very good.”
Leitner also comments on their trust in the RC212V prototype,
“A race bike is never at 100%, this is clear, but at least you can win a race with this bike. That is a good sign. But
everyone knows that at each racetrack we have the same situation, we have to find the best setting and to improve the bike
because the other manufacturers are very strong.”
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