Dani Pedrosa shrugs off HRC criticism

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.”