Dani Pedrosa hopes that his recent collarbone injury will not inhibit his performance at this weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix.
The Honda rider finished second last time out at Jerez, despite suffering from the injury, and has since had an operation to decompress his left subclavian artery, leading to the Spaniard doubting his own fitness level ahead of the Estoril race.
"Last week I had the stitches removed, so everything is very fresh and I don't know how I will feel at Estoril," Pedrosa said. "I'm excited to see if everything went well and if I can put these issues to one side once I'm on the bike. I did what I had to do in these three weeks off [since the Spanish Grand Prix] and I look forward to getting back on the bike."
Pedrosa's Honda teammate Andrea Dovizioso believes that, despite Estoril's long start/finish straight, the RC212V machine will not be able to maximize its straightline speed advantage over rivals Yamaha and Ducati in Portugal.
"The circuit is very slow with the corners and it's not the best to ride with a MotoGP machine, in fact, one of the more difficult tasks is to manage the power of the RC212V on this slow track," the Italian said. "We will have four practice sessions to work on the set up and it's important to start well from the first day."