Dani Pedrosa, the fastest MotoGP never to win a World Championship has squashed all rumours about him joining Rossi at Yamaha by signing for Honda until the end of the 2018 season.
Squashing all rumours about Pedrosa joining Rossi at Yamaha, Honda Racing Corporation has officially confirmed that Pedrosa will be staying with the Repsol Honda Team until 2018.
This coming weekend will be Dani Pedrosa’s 250th race in the World Championship.
Pedrosa has raced for HRC for his entire career which began in 2001 when the Spaniard made his Grand Prix debut in the then 125cc class.
From there Pedrosa went on to claim the 125cc and 250cc World Championship titles, and then entered the premiere class of MotoGP with the Repsol Honda Team in 2006. He has finished as the title runner-up on three occasions – 2007, 2010, 2012.
Just for the record, Dani Pedrosa has achieved more podium finishes for the Honda factory than any other rider – a total of 142 including 51 victories, three fewer than Mick Doohan’s Honda record.
Dani Pedrosa is currently fourth in the championship.
So with Pedrosa confirmed at Honda, the question remains as to who will partner Rossi at Yamaha. The young star Maverick Vinales could just have another shot at the coveted seat at Yamaha.
Honda factory rider Dani Pedrosa seems set to beat Maverick Vinales to the dream seat at Yamaha and to be Rossi’s teammate for 2017 and beyond.
With Lorenzo confirmed at Ducati for the 2017 season, speculation is mounting on who will be joining Rossi at Yamaha next year.
While the favourite has been the young star Maverick Vinales currently riding for Suzuki, word from the MotoGP paddock is now suggesting that Dani Pedrosa could be set to make a shocking move from Honda to Yamaha.
According to MCN, Vinales was the clear favourite to replace Lorenzo at Yamaha, but the talks have fallen through after “hardball salary negotiations”. Pedrosa seems to be the new clear favourite after 11 seasons at Honda.
The move to secure Pedrosa makes perfect sense for Yamaha; replacing Lorenzo with a rider who has a similar riding style to the Spanish World Champion, and one who has a reputation as the dream teammate. This could work out very well for Rossi in his personal quest to secure a 10th World Championship.
But who will replace Pedrosa at the Honda factory team? Well our source says that this could be the chance British rider Cal Crutchlow to have a second go as a factory rider at Honda considering Crutchlow already has a good relationship with Honda.
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