Marco Bezzecchi
Casey Stoner revealed the one part of Jorge Lorenzo’s riding style that he was unable to copy.
During the 2011 and 2012 MotoGP seasons, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner became the title favourites as the two riders went head-to-head for the championship.
At the time, Lorenzo was at Yamaha, and Stoner had just arrived at Repsol Honda at the start of the 2011 season. Lorenzo entered the 2011 season as the reigning MotoGP champion, and Stoner had just come off the back of an interrupted final year on a Ducati.
The 2011 season saw Stoner dominate the championship as he regained the MotoGP crown for the first time since 2007. However, in 2012, after Stoner broke his ankle in America, Lorenzo was crowned MotoGP champion for the second time in his career.
At the end of the 2012 season, Stoner retired from racing, opening a seat for Marc Marquez at Repsol Honda. But the most interesting dynamic during Stoner and Lorenzo’s short rivalry was their different riding styles on a MotoGP bike.
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Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner compare their different riding styles
During the MotoGP Hall of Fame Dinner, Lorenzo and Stoner were discussing their rivalry in MotoGP and mentioned their differences in riding style.
Stoner told Lorenzo that he could not match the Spaniard’s consistency on a MotoGP as Lorenzo labelled the Australian as ‘more instinctive’.
Lorenzo said, “I was not very good at improvisation. I was more improving, improving, improving. You were more instinctive, I was the opposite to you.
“I was always improving, improving, improving, and every time getting better, better, and better, but you were going as fast as soon as possible.”
Stoner responded by saying, “Both systems work; this is the best part of this. There is more than one way to get the job done.
“There were some riders that I could learn a lot from. You were one of the ones that I could not learn almost anything, because I could not do what you could do.
“I could not be that consistent and arrive to this point, and do the same thing.”
How would Marc Marquez have performed against Casey Stoner?
Marc Marquez and Casey Stoner would have been MotoGP rivals in 2012
In Mat Oxley’s book Marc The Magnificent, it was revealed that Marc Marquez nearly secured a MotoGP ride with Honda for the 2012 MotoGP season.
There had been suggestions that Marquez should have replaced Dani Pedrosa in the Repsol Honda garage and partner Casey Stoner in his debut season.
However, an injury in the 2011 Moto2 season derailed the proposed idea of moving Marquez to MotoGP a year earlier than real life events. The Spaniard had been battling with Stefan Bradl in Moto2, before a crash in Sepang caused Marquez to suffer from diplopia.
In the end, Marquez’s move to Honda came a year later in the 2013 season, and he partnered Pedrosa after Stoner retired at the end of 2012. Marquez went on to win the MotoGP title in his rookie year, as he beat Lorenzo in the final round of the season.
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