Honda MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa will be back in action at the French Grand Prix this weekend after missing three of the season's first four races due to arm surgery.
“My recovery has gone well, I think I was right to be patient and take it slowly, and to respect the time frames that I needed,” the Spaniard said in a blog for team sponsor Repsol on Tuesday.
“Now, finally, I can tell you that I will be in Le Mans this weekend.”
Pedrosa, 29, had been replaced by Japanese stand-in Hiroshi Aoyama in the US, Argentine and Spanish rounds as team-mate to double world champion Marc Marquez.
The rider, who had surgery on April 3, had been predicted a recovery time of four to six weeks and said he was keen to get back.
He has suffered from a problem common among motorcycle racers when pressure builds up in the forearm and causes intense pain, making riding a bike difficult when the muscle becomes too big for the 'sack' that it sits in.
Pedrosa has not won a MotoGP race since the Czech Grand Prix last August and was sixth in the season-opener in Qatar.
IANNONE IN TEST CRASH
Meanwhile Ducati rider Andrea Iannone has dislocated his shoulder in a testing crash, although he still hopes to race in this weekend's French Grand Prix, his team said on Tuesday.
Ducati said the Italian suffered heavy bruising when he fell at the Arrabiata-2 corner of the Mugello circuit, which hosts the Italian Grand Prix at the end of May, on the last day of the private test.
Doctors later diagnosed a dislocated left shoulder.
“Over the next three days Iannone will follow treatment agreed with his specialist, with the aim of lining up for the start of the French GP at Le Mans,” the team said on their website.
Iannone is fifth in the standings, just six points adrift of Honda's world champion Marc Marquez, after a promising first four races of the season. He finished third, his first MotoGP podium, in the Qatar opener.
Reuters