Dani Pedrosa reckons he is “very lucky” to escape the fiery crash that red flagged the Styrian Grand Prix, admitting he was “a little scared” at the beginning of the restarted encounter.
The KTM tester had shown impressive speed at the Red Bull Ring as part of a wild-card appearance for the Austrian marque, qualifying 14th as the second highest RC16 pilot on the grid in what was his first race event in nearly three years since retiring from full-time racing at the end of 2018.
Pedrosa’s race didn’t start well though as he spun his machine at Turn 3 on the third tour of the original start, his stranded bike then collected in turn by an unsighted Lorenzo Savadori’s Aprilia-puncturing the fuel tank of the KTM which then caused it to burst into flames.
Luckily both riders escaped the wreck without long-lasting injury, although Savadori suffered a broken ankle, but the race had to be stopped in order for the track to be cleaned of fuel and oil.
Pedrosa was able to take the restart and raced well to score a top ten on his MotoGP return, though admitted post race that he felt he was “very lucky” to escape the smash unscathed, and that he was “really sorry” Savadori wasn’t so fortunate.
“It was a little bit weird (crash) because at that corner it goes uphill in a quite steep way at the apex, so I think maybe the tyre was cold or I hit the white line on the apex but when I tried to pick the bike up on the exit I could not and then spun in the middle of the track,” explained Pedrosa.
“It was a little scary because I was turning and couldn’t see that well, but I saw bikes go everywhere around me so I was very lucky.
“Unfortunately (Lorenzo) Savadori got hurt, so I’m really sorry to him.”
Pedrosa admitted that he was a “little scared” as he lined up for the restarted 27-lap contest, partly due to the crash and also because he had to run with his back-up RC16, which he says “was not my best bike.”
This meant he forgot to correctly arm the start device and got a poor start due to “not being focussed”, though was happy with the pace he was able to show once he finally settled into the race.
“Then in the second race I was a little scared after the first crash so I took it really carefully and was patient, we had to change the (spare) bike from wet to dry and it was not my best bike,” continued Pedrosa.
“I wasn’t focussed as well in the second race so I forgot to arm the front starting device and then was not aggressive on the first lap, but then afterwards I settled into my pace and at the end I was quite fast.
“I was closing on the group in front, so overall a good weekend and I’m happy and we got the information we wanted, I just hope the fans enjoyed the race.”
