Spanish rider explains knee progress and reveals lingering elbow pain.

Dani Pedrosa’s road to recovery may have suffered a minor diversion when he collided with Alex de Angelis in Qatar, but the Spaniard believes that his fitness is steadily improving in the run-up to the Polini Grand Prix of Japan.

The injured star suffered a knock to his elbow when hit by the San Carlo Honda Gresini man in the opening race of the year, but Pedrosa is claiming improvement in the condition of his recently-operated knee.

“I’m looking forward to this weekend in Japan. My leg is improving all the time and the knee is gaining a little bit more mobility every day. I don’t have the full range of movement yet, but I think that by the time we get to Motegi I’ll have about ten degrees more of movement than in Qatar, which should make quite a big difference,” says the Repsol Honda rider as he previews the second race of the 2009 season.

“My elbow is also getting better after the hit De Angelis gave me in Qatar - there’s still some pain and stiffness but I hope it won’t be a problem in Japan. My priority is still to reach full fitness so that I can ride at 100 per cent, and then we must focus on the machine because I missed out on quite a lot of winter testing and we’re still not at the level we’d like to be. It’s a case of taking things one step at time - first to get full fitness and then improve the bike step-by-step.”

Pedrosa finished eleventh in the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar, his lowest placing since the 2008 Czech Republic round.