Early days
Dani Pedrosa started riding bikes at the early age of four, when he got his first motorcycle, an Italjet 50, which had side-wheels. His first racing bike was a minibike replica of
Kawasaki, which he got at the age of six and which he used to race with his friends. Pedrosa experienced real racing at the age of 9, when he entered the Spanish Minibike Championship and ended his debut season in second place, scoring his first podium finish in the second race of the season. The next year, Pedrosa entered the same championship, but health problems prevented him from improving his results and he ended that season in 3rd position.
125cc
In 2001, Pedrosa made his World Championship debut in the 125cc class after being selected from the Movistar Activa Cup, a series designed to promote fresh racing talent in Spain, back in 1999. Under the guidance of
Alberto Puig, Pedrosa scored two podium finishes in the first season and won his first race the following year, when he finished third in the championship. In 2003, he won five races and won the championship with two rounds remaining, scoring 223 points. In his first championship winning year, Pedrosa scored five victories and six podium finishes. A week after winning the championship, eighteen-year-old Pedrosa broke both of his ankles in a crash during practice at Phillip Island (Australia), ending his season.
250cc
After winning the 125cc Championship, Pedrosa moved up to the 250cc class in 2004 without a proper test on the new bike because his ankles were healing during the off-season. Going into the season unprepared, Pedrosa won the first race in South Africa and went on to clinch the 250cc World Championship title, including rookie of the year honours. In his first season in 250cc class, Pedrosa scored 7 victories and 13 podium finishes. Pedrosa decided to stay for one more season in 250cc class, and he won another title, once again with two races remaining in championship. In 2005, Pedrosa won 8 races and scored 14 podium finishes, despite a shoulder injury he sustained in practice session for Japanese Grand Prix.
MotoGP
Pedrosa made the move to 990cc MotoGP bikes in
2006, riding for
Repsol Honda. Critics said that Pedrosa's tiny stature wasn't strong enough to handle a big, heavy MotoGP bike and successfully race in the premier class. Proving them wrong, he finished second in the opening round at
Jerez on March 26, 2006. At his fourth ever MotoGP appearance, on May 14, 2006, during the Chinese Grand Prix race weekend held in Shanghai, he won his first MotoGP race. This win made him the exact equal 2nd youngest winner (tied with the late
Norick Abe) in the Premier Class
behind
Freddie Spencer. He won his second MotoGP race at Donington Park and became a strong candidate for the MotoGP Championship. It was a memorable victory for Dani, who shared the podium first time with
Valentino Rossi in 2nd place. He also took two pole positions in the first half of the season.
Until the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, Pedrosa was 2nd in the Championship only behind his more experienced team-mate
Nicky Hayden. However, he fell heavily during Free Practice and suffered a severe gash to the knee, which practically rendered him immobile. Pedrosa qualified 5th on the grid in that race due to the cancellation of the qualifying session proper due to heavy rainfall. He miraculously managed to finish 3rd in that race, only behind Rossi and
Ducati rider
Loris Capirossi. However, in the next races, his form dropped and he struggled with the bike, moving him down to 5th place in the MotoGP standings.
His poor performance continued at
Estoril. After a promising start, he briefly ran 2nd before being passed by
Colin Edwards and then championship leader and teammate
Nicky Hayden. On lap 5, he and Hayden were involved in a crash. Pedrosa made a mistake whilst trying to overtake Hayden, slid and crashed out of the race, taking out Hayden on the way. This crash ended his slim chances of winning the championship and also caused Hayden to lose his lead in the championship standings, as Rossi managed to finish 2nd.
However, two weeks later, Hayden recovered to win the championship while Pedrosa managed to finish in 4th place. This result clinched his 5th place in overall standings in his debut season, thus taking the title as Rookie of the Year in MotoGP category, beating fellow rookie and former rival in 250 cc
Casey Stoner. At the final (post 2006 season) three day test of 2006 at Jerez Spain, Dani put his 800 cc RC212V at the top of the timesheets (on qualifying tyres) edging out Valentino Rossi by 0.214 seconds. Rossi had been fastest for the first two days of the test. Dani set a time of 1min 39.910 sec around the circuit.
Pedrosa continued to race with Honda in
2007 on their
Honda RC212V, the new 800 cc bike. The machine had problems,
and Pedrosa was taken out of races by
Olivier Jacque and by
Randy de Puniet, but he finished the season in second place behind Stoner and ahead of Rossi. He signed a 2-year contract with Repsol Honda for 2008 and 2009.
In
2008 Pedrosa's problems with the RC212V continued when he was injured in the pre-season and missed developmental testing, but started the season well by scoring a podium at the first round.
While leading the race and the standings in the German round, he crashed and was injured, keeping him from racing in the following two rounds.
Michelin's performance in MotoGP deteriorated, resulting in Pedrosa switching to
Bridgestone at the Indianapolis round.
He finished third in the standings in 2008.
As in 2008, Pedrosa crashed in the
2009 pre-season and injured himself, keeping him from testing the machine before the start of the season. He placed 11th in the first round, but recovered his fitness in the following rounds.
At the fifth round he injured himself again in practice and then fell during the race, putting him 33 points behind the leader.
For 2010, Pedrosa reverted to number 26—a number he used when he first entered MotoGP—from number 2 in 2008 and number 3 in 2009. He took this decision to please his fans who had asked him to return to the number he had always used.
Pedrosa won four races in 2010 and finished second in the championship standings behind
Jorge Lorenzo.
