Valentino Rossi: Dani Pedrosa must improve overtaking

Reigning world champion Valentino Rossi believes Honda rival Dani Pedrosa must become more ruthless in the heat of battle to stake a claim to the 2009 MotoGP world crown.

One weakness Pedrosa has yet to overcome in the premier class is overtaking, with most of his victories won in runaway fashion without any major pressure.

And when he has had to dice it out at the front with the likes of Rossi and Australian Casey Stoner, he invariably comes off second best.

Rossi said: “For me Dani is not very strong to overtake because his riding style is not perfect for overtaking. He has to improve in this areas because some of the others are very strong.”

Rossi though still believes that the Spaniard, who has yet to mount a serious title challenge since he moved to Repsol Honda in 2006, will be one of the favourites next season having raced on Bridgestone tyres for the last five races, “Dani was not at our level in some of those races, not at the level of me and Casey for sure.

“He didn’t have enough experience with Bridgestone tyres, so he didn’t know the limit of the tyres. He didn’t know exactly which tyre to choose for the race, so he needed more races.”

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