Dani Pedrosa shrugs off HRC criticism
Dani Pedrosa shrugs off HRC criticism
By Matthew Birt -
MotoGP
14 September 2011 09:31
Dani Pedrosa has dismissed shock criticism from senior Honda management, who believe the Spaniard played a major role in the incident that destroyed his 2011 MotoGP world title hopes.
Pedrosa broke his right collarbone and missed three races after he was involved in a controversial collision with fellow factory Honda rider Marco Simoncelli in Le Mans.
Simoncelli’s tactics were crucified for being too aggressive, but HRC Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto said in a recent interview that Pedrosa wasn’t completely blameless.
The Japanese boss said Pedrosa should not have engaged Simoncelli in a battle having been overtaken by the Italian, who was clearly faster at that stage of the race. And he said a rider fighting for a championship shouldn’t commit such errors of judgement like Pedrosa did.
Even if Pedrosa had settled for third, he would have still been leading the points.
Pedrosa though told MCN: "Nakamoto hasn’t said anything like that to me, but my opinion of what happened won’t change."
