Hiroshi Aoyama to ride for Repsol Honda in place of injured Dani Pedrosa – MotoGP news
San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Hiroshi Aoyama will be riding as a substitute for the injured Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa.
Aoyama will ride factory Honda RCV at the upcoming Iveco TT Assen Grand Prix in Netherlands this weekend.
Pedrosa said, “It's been some days since the surgery and I feel much better. I don't feel the pain I had before the operation and the evolution has been very good. I've already begun the rehabilitation and I am very positive.”
He further added, “Every day I notice an improvement and this is very good because I really wish to get back on the bike as soon as possible. To be honest it will be very difficult for me to make it to Assen, but I really believe I will be okay for Mugello,
so now I'm focused on working to get better every day and see how far I get.”
Pedrosa is willing to return completely fit, but he is not recovering as fast as he thought. His recovery was delayed due the unconventional plate size used to fix his fracture. Its size was kept smaller than usual, which slightly elongated the rehabilitation
process. Later on during an exercise session, his bone fragment was displaced and it required yet another surgery.
The secondary surgery has significantly increased his rehabilitation time. Pedrosa has already missed two consecutive events after his crash during the Le Mans round.
Absence from three consecutive events will drop him to sixth place in the MotoGP world championship points table. His fight for the 2011 MotoGP title will get tougher as he awaits his comeback.
Hiroshi Aoyama was also considered as a replacement for the Spaniard to run at Silverstone, along American veteran John Hopkins. Aoyama however, denied the offer to ride for the factory team.
The Japanese rider was not willing to make his Honda Gresini team suffer. His decision did not go wrong as he scored some points for his Italian team with a ninth place finish at the wet Silverstone event.
HRC has now decided to call in Aoyama for the Dutch GP and also provided HRC test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi to fill in for Aoyama at the San Carlo Honda Gresini team.
The Repsol Honda team will run its all three machines at the Netherlands event. Casey Stoner is already leading the points table with an 18-point lead from Jorge Lorenzo. The Yamaha Factory rider fell during a chase of the HRC duo and his effort failed to
extend his lead in the championship standings.
Let’s see how this weekend turns out to be for the drivers in Assen.
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