Pedrosa: Simoncelli action too late

A clash between the two riders at Le Mans last month left Pedrosa with a broken collarbone which he is still recovering from.

The incident came after a string of complaints from other riders about Simoncelli's on-track behaviour. The Gresini Honda man was given a ride-through penalty during the French Grand Prix as a punishment for the clash with Pedrosa, and then summoned by race direction at Catalunya for talks about his conduct, after which he agreed to act differently in the future.

But Pedrosa thinks race direction should have come down hard on Simoncelli when riders first complained about his moves.

"I would look at from the beginning. In the first occasion I would really do a strong, severe decision to make sure these things cannot happen anymore," said Pedrosa in a video interview with the official MotoGP website. "But they have another policy and they decide for us.

"In my situation, somebody threw my championship away and it's hard to swallow but it's something I have to accept."

Pedrosa is now down to fourth in the championship, 37 points behind leader Jorge Lorenzo, and will definitely miss Silverstone this weekend as well.

"I missed the race in Barcelona, which was very special for me, and also I missed the chance of winning the title when I had a good package, I felt great and the bike was working so well," said the Honda rider.

He added that he was making no predictions about when he would return to racing yet, as he did not want to rush back before he was fit enough to be competitive.

"Right now we can't really say which level we are at, but I hope soon I can be back on the bike," said Pedrosa.

"We have to really consider my comeback week by week. We have to check my condition and how I feel week by week and then plan to come back. But to say now when I will come back... it's unknown.

"I would like to be fully fit to come back to racing, this would be great, because that guarantees me the option to win races again."