Pedrosa withdraws from Laguna

The Spaniard fractured his left wrist and index finger, and sprained his ankle, when he crashed while leading the wet race at Sachsenring last weekend. His wrist was operated on in Spain earlier this week and he flew out to Laguna on Wednesday to see if he could contest the race.

He rode in the two practice sessions yesterday with modified gloves, designed to further protect his injured hand, but he needed a pain-killing injection between the sessions and was only capable of 15th place in the afternoon, nearly three seconds off the pace of Casey Stoner up front.

He surrendered the lead of the championship to Valentino Rossi with his retirement in Germany and was 16 points behind Rossi and four ahead of Stoner going into this weekend's US Grand Prix.

Pedrosa was keen to race if he could to limit the ground he would lose title rivals Stoner and Valentino Rossi, but he was unable to ride anywhere close to full speed and risked causing further injury to his wrist and ankle.

He is now due to return home to Spain to undergo further treatment and will hope to recover in the four-week gap before the next race at Brno.