Dani Pedrosa: No regrets over last lap strategy in Catalunya

Dani Pedrosa says he doesn’t regret his last lap strategy after the Repsol Honda rider failed to stop HRC teammate Marc Marquez from claiming a seventh straight win in a classic Catalunya battle last Sunday.

Pedrosa enjoyed his best race of the season in Barcelona and was right on the back wheel of Marquez on the final lap in a dramatic 25-lap race.

But Pedrosa’s hopes of capturing a first win since last October’s Sepang race in Malaysia were ended four corners from home when he almost crashed out after clipping the rear tyre of Marquez.

That dropped him back into third, with the contact forcing him well wide at Turn 11 and letting Movistar Yamaha rival Valentino Rossi sweep through to take his fourth runner-up spot of 2014.

Pedrosa watched one of the best battles witnessed in living memory on TV on Sunday night and he doesn’t believe he could have done more to try and deny Marquez a record-breaking seventh straight win.

Pedrosa, who had claimed his first premier class pole position for a year in Catalunya, said: “Maybe before the last lap I would try to change my strategy but sometime the last lap goes like this.

“But on the last lap you don’t really plan. You just go for it. The last three corners it is almost impossible to pass. We could see Valentino (Rossi) make a special move once but I thought Marc would go into that corner really tight, so I had to try and surprise him in another place.”

When asked by MCN how he had felt watching back the nail-biting race again on TV, Pedrosa said: “I watched it last night and it was so cool to see such tight racing between these names.

“Each one of us had good moves and it was really exciting. I wish to have these kind of races every week but the best of all it is in the books and we can watch it again.”