Pedrosa: Rossi helped me a lot

Dani Pedrosa kept in close contact with reigning six time MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi during the closing minutes of Friday's qualifying session at Assen, and was rewarded with second on the Dutch TT grid.

“I'm pleased with my qualifying position today, especially considering that there was quite a lot of traffic on track in the final few minutes,” said Pedrosa, who lapped just 0.085sec slower than Rossi for his first front row start since pole at round four in France.

“I was lucky at the end of the session to have Valentino in front and being behind him helped me a lot to set this lap time,” admitted the #3, who had been sixth in the free practice sessions.

“The feeling from the machine is quite good, although we still need to make some adjustments to the set-up to make best use of the Bridgestone tyres for the race, and this is what we'll be working on in the warm-up.”

Nursing an injured hip since Mugello, the Repsol Honda rider has now dropped to fifth in the world championship, but is hoping for a strong race tomorrow.

“My physical condition on the bike today was again much better than at the last race in Barcelona and this makes a lot of difference because I am able to concentrate fully on riding. I know that the race will be very physically demanding though, so I can take nothing for granted. Still, with some final set-up improvements, I hope I can make a good start and have a strong race tomorrow,” said the Spaniard.(crash)

Pedrosa wants to get on RC212V and off painkillers for Assen race

Dani Pedrosa had little time to recover from a hip injury ahead of his home round in Barcelona last time out, and suffered discomfort throughout the race weekend which he had felt obliged to attend in order to keep up with the MotoGP series leaders. The Spaniard has had more time to recover for the Alice TT Assen, with the idea being to ride in the Netherlands without the aid of painkillers.

“Since the race in Barcelona I’ve basically been resting, trying to give my hip as much chance to improve as possible. Obviously there hasn’t been a lot of time - just over one week - but I certainly feel a lot better now than immediately after the last race when I was totally exhausted,” says the Repsol Honda rider, who struggled to sixth at the last race.

“I’m feeling positive about the weekend and we’ll just have to see how it goes when riding starts on Thursday. My intention would be to ride without receiving any pain-killing injections because gradually they lose their effectiveness and they are not something I want to rely on - we’ll see how the feeling is when I start to ride.”

Pedrosa has been taking the medication since a ‘tankslapper’ moment at the Italian round of the World Championship at Mugello, although the required sensitivity, grip and movement onboard a MotoGP machine has been lacking due to the nature of the injections.

Assen has traditionally been a fruitful track for the former World Championship runner-up, who finished second in the 2008 edition of the Saturday race.(motogp)

Spaniard will miss Monday test after 'worthwhile' sixth place.

At less than 100% fitness, Dani Pedrosa had a tough weekend at his home Grand Prix. The Spaniard held on for sixth place at the Circuit de Catalunya, but the race will be his last action at the track for the immediate future as Honda requested that he miss Monday's test.

"It’s been a very hard weekend and I finished the race exhausted and in a lot of pain, but I don’t regret being here this weekend trying to do my best. I didn’t want to miss my home race and even though sixth position is not the best result in front of my fans, I’m happy with it. I could feel their enormous support during the whole weekend and it helped me a lot to race. It also wouldn’t have been possible without the doctors’ help: they kept me in the best possible condition to bear the pain. The injections I’ve had on each day worked, but obviously to do 25 laps it’s been very hard. The doctors told me that this fracture needs time to heal so I’m going to rest as much as possible and see what the progress is for Assen. The Team asked me not test tomorrow to give me the best chance to recover and it’s a sensible decision. I didn’t have a great start today, but I could manage to stay in the second group in the race. I tried to stay with Capirossi, but I couldn’t, so I choose to maintain the sixth position. I’m really tired now, but it was a worthwhile race."(motogp)

Dani Pedrosa denies new Honda deal

Dani Pedrosa has denied that he has signed a new MotoGP contract with Honda, but did reveal that he will try a new chassis during this weekend's Grand Prix of Catalunya.

The Spaniard has been a factory Repsol Honda rider ever since his 2006 MotoGP debut and is the only Honda rider to win a race since the switch to 800cc engines.

Pedrosa has won two races a year since joining the premier class with a best championship ranking of second, a distant 125 points behind Casey Stoner, in 2007.

But the 125 and double 250cc world champion is yet to mount a sustained title attack and has appeared increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress with Honda's RC212V project.

Rumours had also circulated that Repsol might try to sign fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo to replace Pedrosa, but those looked to have died down and Pedrosa remaining at Repsol Honda seems the most likely scenario.

Nevertheless, pressed on whether rumours that he had signed a new contract with Honda for 2010 were true Pedrosa responded: "We have not even had that conversation yet."

Pedrosa, who will ride with the aid of pain-killing injections this weekend after cracking his thigh last time out at Mugello, did confirm that he will try a new chassis in Catalunya, as Honda fights to adapt the RC212V to the new single-tyre rule.

“We have something which, if the conditions are good, we will try straight away this weekend,” he said. “It is a modified frame to improve the stability under braking. That is the main target and we will check how it works. If I can handle the pain then I will also take part in the test on Monday.”

Pedrosa will start round six of the 2009 world championship in fourth position, 33 points behind Stoner.(crash)

Pedrosa tests injection, intends to race

Dani Pedrosa will ride in front of his home fans in this weekend's Grand Prix of Catalunya, with the aid of pain killing injections.

The Repsol Honda rider, who underwent knee (twice) and forearm surgery before the season had even begun, cracked his thigh bone in a near highside last time out at Mugello.

A race day accident fortunately avoided further physical damage, but the Spaniard has now dropped out of the title fight (at least temporarily) sitting 24 points behind third placed Valentino Rossi. Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner are just nine points apart.

“I'm really looking forward to my home grand prix even though the build-up has hardly been perfect. For the past week I've just been resting and that's pretty boring. But [on Tuesday] I went to see the doctor and the results of the new scan have been quite positive,” explained Pedrosa.

“They decided to give me a trial pain-killing injection so that I can judge how it will feel ahead of the weekend. And the scan really helped them pinpoint the best location for the injection so it can have the maximum effect, which was something they weren't able to do in Mugello.

“The feeling was good, so it looks like I'll have an injection before riding each day,” he confirmed. “Obviously it's still not going to be comfortable riding the bike but I'm feeling positive that we can go into the weekend and aim for the best possible result.

Pedrosa has won in all three classes at Catalunya, including a dominant victory and new lap record one year ago. That victory remains Honda's most recent MotoGP win.

“In spite of the problems, my motivation for my home race is still the same,” he said. “I've been waiting for this race for a long time and I want to get the best possible result for all the fans who will be there to support me. I hope I can give them a good weekend.”

This weekend's event will be the second of three rounds on Spanish asphalt, the first - round three at Jerez - was the only grand prix weekend so far this year not to be interrupted by rain.

Weather forecasts predict another fine weekend in Catalunya.

Pedrosa : I will be in the Great Prize of Catalunya

Hello to all.
As I promised to you yesterday, a day later I put myself in contact again with you to announce that luckyly, I am going to be able to compete this weekend in Montmeló. It does much illusion to me, because i don't want to lose this race anyway.

first, because I realize that losing this race is very bad to us in the classification. and on the other,
because i dont want to miss a change to race in front of our fans, my family and friends.

What was happened in Mugello it is already past. It is forgotten. Now it is time to confront the Great Prize of Catalunya with illusion. although, we are realize that I am physically not ecovered, I am not 100% fit. So this weekend will be called on to suffer, but I am preparation for it.

The Championship is complicated because there is certain difference of points, but we are going to continue working what we have did until now, and I am convinced that they are going to arrive good races.

After the fall of Mugello, the doctors recommended absolute rest to me, and that is what I've been doing last the nine days, always thinking about being able to be in the best possible physical training conditionses for Catalunya.

Today I have returned to go the Dexeus, and Dr. Mir and Dr. Ribas have made me an ecography to see the evolution of the fracture. Still it hurts to me, but I am contented because they have said to me that I can run, and mainly, already they have been able to make an infiltration for seeing how I react before the effects of the anesthesia and the antiinflammatories that have put on me.

If the sensations are good, we will repeat the procedure during the weekend, to be in the best conditions as much in the training as in the race. More I am animated, and is positive to be able to advance to several days the treatment, to be sure that it works when arrives the necessary moment.

A strong hug for all of you and thanks to be there, supporting me always. We see ourselves in Montmeló! .(Dani-Maulida)

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince (Review)

Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts turns out to be quite the exciting year. First off is the arrival of a new teacher at Hogwarts, Horace Slughorn, who is a bit more useful to Harry than he realizes. Next, Harry obtains a Potions book which used to be belong to the very mysterious Half-Blood Prince. Harry finds that the Half-Blood Prince's ancient scribbles are written along the margins of almost every page, giving Harry advice on how to improve greatly on his Potions work, and also teaching him a few helpful (and dangerous) spells along the way.

Amidst this, Harry is starting private lessons with Professor Dumbledore, during which Harry learns the dark secrets of Voldemort's past, hoping that they could use these secrets to find a way to defeat him.

Harry's year gets even more stressful with the suspicious actions of Draco Malfoy, who has been sneaking around the school doing, so Harry assumes, Voldemort's bidding. Harry quickly becomes determined, and slightly obsessed, to find out exactly what Malfoy has been up to and putting and end to it.

Yet, during this time, Harry and his friends go through daily life, busy with school work, Quidditch, (in which Harry has been made captain of the team) and of course, romance. Ron has found a new girlfriend, Lavender Brown, a perky (if not obnoxious) Gryffindor student, and Hermione is not happy about it. Ron and Hermione's friendship takes a toll throughout the school year and Harry, as usual, is stuck in the middle. Harry, meanwhile, is facing a romantic dilemma of his own: he realizes he is falling for his best friend's sister, Ginny Weasley, who is unfortunately dating Harry's classmate, Dean Thomas. Harry's pining for Ginny and Ron's hilarious relationship with Lavender give this story a large dose of reality.

Throughout all the school drama, however, the obvious darkness of Voldemort's impending rise to power is always apparent. The incredible action-packed climax is sure to leave the audience stunned and, inevitably, prove that you shouldn't trust everybody who you think is good and also prove that not everyone can manage to survive.(imdb)

Stoner: Leading now means nothing

Casey Stoner, who returned to the head of the MotoGP World Championship with victory last time out at Mugello, insists leading the standings at this stage in the season means 'absolutely nothing'.

The Australian took his first victory since the Qatar season opener with a one-second win over Jorge Lorenzo in the wet/dry Italian Grand Prix. The win was Stoner's 18th in the premier-class, matching countryman and fellow world champion Wayne Gardner.

However, with only a four point lead over fellow double 2009 race winner Lorenzo, and a nine point advantage over reigning six time champion Valentino Rossi, Stoner believes his present position is irrelevant with 12 rounds and 300 points still to be decided.

“This championship is extremely difficult and competitive and even a victory like the one at Mugello, wonderful as it was, needs to be put behind us so that we can turn our focus to the next race,” he began.

“Being leader of the championship at this stage means absolutely nothing. My rivals are very clever, mature and capable of winning races so we have to stay focused, do our best to be competing for the top step of the podium again and if that's not possible then make sure we are bringing home the maximum number of points.”

Stoner won at Barcelona during his title winning 2007 season, and was third last year.

“Barcelona was one of my favourite circuits until they re-laid it,” he said. “Even though they put a completely new surface down a few years ago it has never been the same as it was before and the fact they race F1 there hasn't helped the situation in terms of the bumps and potholes.

“The layout is nice though - the first part isn't too difficult but the middle and end parts of the lap are technical and demanding, especially the fast pair of right-handers coming onto the start-finish straight.”

On Friday morning both Stoner and Nicky Hayden will be honoured by the Circuit de Catalunya with the unveiling of their own plaques on “Champions Avenue” - adding their names to those of Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Dani Pedrosa, amongst others - in celebration of their MotoGP titles.(crash)

Save The Day

Tied to the tracks and I hear you call
Your voice is shaking
The train is coming faster than you thought
And there's no escaping it
And you think that you know
How the end of the story goes
That's a page I rewrote
And I'm taking away the ropes
There's more hope than you'll ever know

So keep breathing
I said that I'll always be there
Now I mean it more than ever before
There's a future worth fighting for
So don't be scared
I know how you must be feeling
No one to help you carry the pain
I'm coming to save the day

Hands of the clock
Are standing still
But your heart is racing
You're losing your grip on the windowsill
Pulled down by the weight of it
And you pray for relief
As you lie on the bathroom floor
As you wait
You can see
There's a light underneath the door
This is the day you've been waiting for

So keep breathing
I said that I'll always be there
Now I mean it more than ever before
There's a future worth fighting for
So don't be scared
I know how you must be feeling
No one to help you carry the pain

We're finally breaking
Into the daylight
Feel the warmth of the sun
I will stand by your side
Till your fear passes on
So just look in my eyes
Baby, try to hold on
And you'll find
It won't be long

So keep breathing
I said that I'll always be there
Now I mean it more than ever before
There's a future worth fighting for
So don't be scared
I know how you must be feeling
No one to help you carry the pain
I'm coming to save the day, yeah

Comin' to save the day
(There's a future worth fighting for)
Don't be scared
I know how you must be feeling
You know that it won't be long
No one to help you carry the pain
It won't be long

Tied to the tracks and I hear you call
Your voice is shaking