‘I just want to win’ - Pedrosa shrugs off speculation

MotoGP News
Date: 3/June/2012

Dani Pedrosa insists that his focus is purely on winning as speculation grows that his Repsol Honda team will launch a determined bid to sign fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo for 2013.

Casey Stoner’s shock announcement that he will retire at the end of the year has left Honda, which had waited four seasons for a MotoGP title before Stoner’s arrival last year, in search of a new rider.

And Lorenzo, world champion for Yamaha in 2010 and leader of this year’s title race after three wins from five starts, is the obvious choice.

Such a big-money signing would place a major question mark over Pedrosa’s future at the only team he has raced for since joining MotoGP in 2006. Especially with young Spanish talent and Repsol favourite Marc Marquez set to join MotoGP next year, then be eligible for a factory ride in 2013.

But Pedrosa insists he’s heard it all before.

“These things are always here in the kind of years when every rider is out of contract,” he said of the speculation. “I have other people to take care of that. I really care more about winning.

“Actually that is more disappointing than anything else for me at the moment. I have everything good this year, but I am not winning. So I want to win soon.”

Pedrosa was speaking after finishing runner-up to Lorenzo in Sunday’s Catalan Grand Prix. Even Pedrosa admits that it’s hard to fault Lorenzo at present, who has finished no lower than second in the opening five rounds.

“Jorge is almost doing a perfect season,” said Pedrosa. “He is only missing ten points out of the total possible. He’s really on the pace and we have to be there also if we want to keep up in the championship.”

Pedrosa remains third in the world championship, but has now slipped 30 points behind Lorenzo. Team-mate Stoner, the only other rider to win this year, is second.