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Dani Pedrosa Rumored to Go to Yamaha

The name of Dani Pedrosa is the latest one to be put in conjunction with the team Movistar Yamaha. If we are to believe the words of Paolo Ianieri from the prestigious Italian sports magazine Gazzetta Dello Sport, Maverick Vinales received a very good offer from Suzuki and might stay with Hamamatsu.
Dani Pedrosa 1 photo
Photo: hdwallpaperia.com
Yamaha's next move revolves around Maverick Vinales' decision, as he is tipped to be the one rider Yamaha sees as the most appropriate replacement for Jorge Lorenzo, who dons the Ducati leathers after the race at Valencia, this autumn.

Still, according to Ianieri, having Vinales aboard the M1 might be easier said than done because Suzuki is not exactly thrilled to see their best rider leave the team. The Italian journalist claims that Suzuki put a €5 million ($5.8 mil) contract on the table in front of Vinales, which is a sum Yamaha is not willing to pay.

In fact, Ianieri says that Yamaha is only looking forward to paying half that sum for Vinales's services. The motivation is a simple one: no matter how much potential Vinales has, he still hasn't won anything to date, podium or races, and Iwata is not in a spending mood.

The deal Yamaha has with Rossi is anything but a cheap one; not unlike how Ducati spent a ton of money on securing Jorge Lorenzo and will most likely be trying to save some with their second rider.

Ianieri believes that Pedrosa could be an option for Yamaha, buying them time to see if Maverick Vinales becomes the winner they hope he would. Pedrosa is a skilled rider and could, at least, spare Yamaha of the things that inherently come with hiring a very young rider. At the same time, this move could represent one of Pedrosa's best chances to win a MotoGP World Title, the one missing from his panoply.

And with him already 30 years old, there may not be too many occasions like this one. Of course, such a move makes a lot of other permutations possible, including that of Dovizioso back with Honda on Pedrosa's former bike, and Iannone accepting a salary reduction, partly motivated by his crash into Dovi, maybe.

And even more, there's still an empty KTM seat for 2017, making things even fuzzier for the moment. However, it looks like the rider market is waiting for Vinales' move, and only then is hell going to break loose.
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