Confirmed: Pedrosa to continue with Repsol Honda till 2018

With Jorge Lorenzo announcing his move to the factory Ducati team next year and Maverick Vinales most likely to not replace him at Yamaha, rumours about Pedrosa moving to Yamaha were quick to spread around. Repsol Honda today laid all those rumours to rest, by announcing a renewal of the Spaniard's contract with the factory Honda team, at least for the next two seasons. In fact, some of the reports even suggest that Pedrosa was expected to switch to Yamaha but HRC managed to convince the Spaniard to stay with it thanks to some last minute negotiations.

Following the extension of his contract, 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.”

Pedrosa has been with Honda right from the time he made his career debut in the erstwhile 125cc class. He then went on to win two titles in the 250cc class before making it to the big league in 2006. Despite being a consistent performer since his MotoGP debut, the highly coveted MotoGP championship title eludes Pedrosa though. Will he be able to break that jinx this year is a big question for the Spaniard, but the bigger question for MotoGP fanatics the world over is who will replace Lorenzo as Rossi’s partner at the factory Yamaha team!