MotoGP 2016: Honda Renews Contract With Dani Pedrosa Until 2018

Dani Pedrosa started his career with Honda way back in 2001 in the 125cc class and has been racing for the team ever since. He eventually went on to win the 125cc and 250cc class before heading to the Repsol Honda MotoGP team in 2006. For the Japanese team, the Spanish racer has bagged a total of 142 podium finishes (101 podiums in MotoGP itself) and 51 victories during his 15 year career, the maximum by any Honda rider.

Dani Pedrosa started his racing career with Honda in 2001 and has been associated ever since

Speaking on his renewal, Dani Pedrosa said, "I'm very happy to be able to announce my renewal with the Repsol Honda Team. I'm very grateful to Honda for the trust they've shown in renewing with me for an additional two years. I think it's best for me to continue with the company I was with at my very first race. I'm happy that the negotiations have been quick, and now I can just focus on racing. I want to give 100% this weekend at the Italian GP."

HRC too was equally pleased to have Pedrosa on board, Shuhei Nakamoto, Vice President, HRC said, "We're very pleased to renew our contract with Dani, and we really appreciate his loyalty to Honda and HRC. We've been working together for many years, but we always see in Dani the same passion and dedication. His experience is very important for helping our technicians to develop our bike, and we'll do our best to help him to demonstrate all his talent!"

The past weeks have seen several major announcements of riders joining new teams. The most talked about though has been that of Jorge Lorenzo's shift to Ducati from Movistar Yamaha, which was made official last month and now rumours in the Spanish media are ripe that Maverick Vinales, who has been riding for team Suzuki, will move to Yamaha taking Lorenzo's place alongside Valentino Rossi for the next two seasons. An official announcement is expected to take place at Mugello this weekend.