Bombshell Pedrosa: The Little Samurai wins Free 1 in Jerez

The first MotoGP practice session of Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez He has already shown the desire to race with all the drivers with the top 13 under the fastest lap record in the Bagnaia race. And in what will be the best conditions of the day before the heat wave makes the afternoon session ‘hell’ for the little Samurai Dani Pedrosa with his great clarity when reading the conditions and his decision to show that anyone with restraint got ‘Great Samurai’ won Free 1 with 34 thousandths of advantage over Jorge Martín and 0″240 over Taka Nakagami.

Dani Pedrosa He barely competed in his second Grand Prix since he hung up the official driver’s overalls in 2018. De Motegi from that year dated the last time Dani led a free practice session, FP2 in Japan . And as a KTM tester, after offering himself and being rejected by Honda, they convinced him to run the Styrian GP in 2021 where he already showed that he is not a typical tester: FP1, 11th and 1”045 and 1st KTM; FP2, 21st at 2.650, a session in the water; FP3 12th at 0″644 and 1st KTM again and 0″018 from the cut; in Q1, 4th to 10th slice. And he finished top-10 in the race after the scare he suffered when he crashed at the third turn in the middle of the line and the motorcycles caught fire leading to the red flag. No one ordered him to come out again, but he went out and finished the play.

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The rider from Castellar del Vallès has a brilliant record in Jerez with 11 podiums, including four wins in 2005 (250cc) and 2008, 2013 and 2017 (MotoGP). And Turn 6 has been named after him since 2019. He spends his winters riding around the KTM development circuit. And only on the bike that is progressing and with his technical test team led by Esteban García showed that KTM is on track to end one of its shortcomings: the fastest qualifying lap. The one who tested it was Dani taking the cat to the water.

Pedrosa is six tenths off the record for Bagnaia’s pole position last year and that KTM’s best race result at Jerez was Pol Espargaró’s sixth at Jerez-1 in 2020. The last two MotoGP champions did not use the new soft tires and finished ninth in Bagnaia and 18th in Quartararo. So far the pass to Q2 is for Pedrosa, Martín, Nakagami, Marini, Espargaró, Binder Alex Márquez, Miller, Bagnaia and Viñales. The eventual winner Rins, twelfth to 7 tenths.