Telefonica to fight for Pedrosa.

With Dani Pedrosa widely believed to have an 'official' Honda MotoGP contract already in his pocket for next season, the Spaniard's long time backer Telefonica Movistar are now said to be fighting to keep the reigning 250cc World Champion in 'blue' for his premier-class debut.

Pedrosa is reported to have secured a place with the factory Repsol Honda Team for 2006 meaning that, after being 'discovered' by Telefonica Movistar and racing in a team funded by the telecommunications giant for his entire career, he would switch to Repsol colours just at the moment of maximum publicity.

Some sort of agreement between Repsol and Telefonica Movistar for co-sponsorship of the factory Honda team (which might well leave one Honda team without a title sponsor) has long been rumoured, triggered mainly by the Sete Gibernau situation.

Gibernau has been Valentino Rossi's closest rival for the past two seasons, making him the obvious choice for the factory Repsol team, but has remained with the satellite Gresini outfit because he has been unwilling/unable to break his association with Telefonica.

A compromise of sorts was reached by Honda handing Gibernau a third factory bike, run within the Gresini team, for this season - but both Repsol and Telefonica are likely to put up a bigger fight for the services of Pedrosa, who is already arguably a bigger star than Gibernau in their Spanish homeland and tipped as a potential Rossi beater.

Pedrosa currently rides with a significant level of Repsol livery on his predominantly blue Movistar bike and leathers, perhaps pointing to the path ahead - but unless the team set-ups change he would still either be riding for the Movistar Honda team (which also has backing from Repsol's rival Castrol) or the Repsol Honda Team.

Repsol would appear to hold most of the cards if Pedrosa's contract is indeed for a factory ride - and HRC may well want to reward the petroleum company for its loyalty during several seasons of underachievement by the factory team and the absence of a Spanish star since Alex Criville.

Nevertheless, Telefonica could equally push for Pedrosa to be placed at the Gresini team - perhaps arguing that throwing Dani into a high-pressure 'Nicky Hayden' type situation would not be in anyone's interest. It may also be easier to absorb Pedrosa's long time mentor, Alberto Puig, into the team structure at Gresini than at HRC.

But that's no doubt just one of the possibilities being explored at present, while the sizable question of what will happen to current Telefonica/Repsol MotoGP riders Gibernau, Melandri, Hayden and Biaggi also remains up for debate...