Dani Pedrosa's crew chief Mike Leitner never lost faith in his rider, despite his year-long drought without a victory.

Dani Pedrosa's victory at Laguna Seca last weekend was a very welcome return to the top step of the podium for the Repsol Honda rider, who has experienced an extraordinary run of bad luck over the past 12-months.

Pedrosa dropped the bike while leading at the German Grand Prix last July, injuring his hand in the process.

Three months later at Phillip Island, Pedrosa had another crash, resulting in an injury to his leg.

Then, during pre-season testing at Qatar, another spill saw the luckless Spaniard hurt himself again, before damaging his hip while suffering yet another DNF at the Italian Grand Prix, followed by yet another crash at Assen.

Needless to say, the last year has seen more visits to the physio than the podium, and his run of poor form showed no signs of steadying given his limited time on the bike.

The 23-year-old never had to doubt the support of his team though, and their tireless efforts eventually resulted in a fantastic win in California.

"The close group around him never lost confidence in him," said crew chief Leitner.

"Sure people outside think, ‘what's going on?', because they don't know how bad the damage is to the rider. I mean in Mugello and Barcelona he was really suffering and the Assen race was an extra blow, so it shows this Laguna result was very good."

Leitner also fielded questions about his future hopes for the RC212V prototype, commenting: "A race bike is never at 100%, this is clear, but at least you can win a race with this bike. That is a good sign. But everyone knows that at each racetrack we have the same situation, we have to find the best setting and to improve the bike because the other manufacturers are very strong."