Marco Bezzecchi
Despite never winning a premier class title himself, Dani Pedrosa was a consistent contender for a lot of world championships.
The latter stages of the 2000s and early years of the 2010s were dominated by the battles between four of the best riders to have ever entered MotoGP.
Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi traded blows for the world title, whilst Dani Pedrosa proved to be a frustrating thorn in the side of all of their championship hopes.
There’s a reason why the Spaniard was recently inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame, and stands as one of the all-time greatest Honda riders in the premier class.
- READ MORE: The five best riders never to win a MotoGP championship including Dani Pedrosa and Max Biaggi
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Casey Stoner recalled the ‘phenomenal’ trick Dani Pedrosa employed to frustrate him in MotoGP
Speaking in an appearance on Ducati Diaries from June 2024, Stoner praised his former on-track rival through a comparison to how different MotoGP bikes are currently compared to the machinery that he was riding atop during his career.
The two-time MotoGP champion said, “You could go and get someone from Moto3, throw them straight on a MotoGP bike, and they’re going to be competitive.
“You don’t need to know how to ride, and save tyres and find grip like we used to, that’s a thing of the past. You don’t need to control wheelspin coming out of corners, that’s a thing of the past.
“The b—– bike drops down and there are winglets everywhere that stop all this wheelieing. That was part of the skill, part of the talent of everyone, short shifting and finding the right moment.
“Dani Pedrosa was phenomenal at just using a little stab of the rear brake out of the last corner in Qatar. He would pull two tenths on me to the finish line, not even to the end of the straight, just to the finish line.
“A tenth and a half to two tenths every lap just because he was so good at getting in that perfect torque zone, stabbing the rear brake so that it dropped the front end, and away he’d go.
“Now, everyone can do the same b—– thing, and you don’t even need the talent for it. You can come out, twist that throttle, and that thing’s just going to go down the straight.”
Casey Stoner says why he didn’t enjoy beating Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa to the 2007 MotoGP title
The first of Stoner’s premier class championships came during the 2007 season, when he was riding for the factory Ducati team.
Despite riding a bike that was being ‘eaten alive’ by its rivals on the corner exit, the Australian was dominant.
He claimed 14 podiums, including 10 Grand Prix victories, and five pole positions in just his second season of premier class racing, beating Pedrosa to the championship by 125 points.
However, Stoner didn’t enjoy his feat in 2007 due to the massive amount of pressure that was on his shoulders at the time.
Ducati have never won a riders’ championship before, so the anticipation of him bringing the first title back to Borgo Panigale was humongous.
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