Marco Bezzecchi
Dani Pedrosa has revealed how Casey Stoner’s emergence in MotoGP totally changed his “very real” rivalry with Jorge Lorenzo through a shared aim to beat the Australian.
Pedrosa admits that his relationship with Lorenzo was always very “complicated” during the early phases of their respective careers, given that the Spaniards had been rivals since their youth. But Stoner emerging on the scene then gave Pedrosa and Lorenzo a “common rival”.
Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner ultimately became two of the famous five ‘aliens’ of MotoGP in the late 2000s and early 2010s with Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez. They were a tour de force that dominated MotoGP, having been a cut above everyone else on the grid each year.
Pedrosa and Stoner both joined the premier class in the 2006 MotoGP season, as the former stepped up with Honda after taking back-to-back 250cc class titles while the latter debuted for LCR. Lorenzo had to wait until 2008 for his MotoGP debut with the factory Yamaha team.
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Dani Pedrosa claims Casey Stoner’s emergence gave him and Jorge Lorenzo a ‘common rival’
Pedrosa used to frustrate Stoner with how he used the rear brake around tracks like Lusail in Qatar to pull away from him. Similarly, Stoner admits that he “could not” be as consistent as Lorenzo, who the Australian always felt could find the limit and then continue to stay there.
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Likewise, Lorenzo hailed Stoner and Pedrosa’s “instincts”, and he considers his former rivals to be the most instinctive riders he ever raced. But behind their respect was a rivalry, which Pedrosa says led him and Lorenzo to establish a “respectful understanding” to beat Stoner.
Pedrosa told the Fast & Curious podcast: “With Jorge? Well, it’s very different, complicated, isn’t it? Very different, because we have very different personalities. We’ve been that way since we were little, and we grew up almost side by side.
“So, there was a lot of rivalry from a young age, a rivalry that was very real. We didn’t hide anything from each other – we didn’t like each other. Also, back in those days, motorcycling was, let’s say, divided between the fans, the sponsors and the press – divided between those two sides of the ring, wasn’t it? The yin and the yang.
“It’s like, ‘Well, I identify more with one side’, and others identify more with the other, with the opposite. So, those opposites were something that were very much alive for many years until, I think, there came a moment when we had a common rival, which was Stoner.
“And at that point, well, let’s say things also reached a more respectful understanding. The way he pushed me, and the way I had to push to beat him, and vice versa – that made us better and made us do things at times we might not have wanted to do.
“But we were forced to because the other side was doing it. And, well, then you come to realise that as you get older, you say, ‘No, it’s not that I’m good, I’m very good.’ Because when you’re young, you say, ‘I’m better than him,’ and he thinks the same, doesn’t he?”
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Pedrosa got the better of Stoner to win the second of his two 250cc titles in 2005, which he even secured on the back of lifting the 2003 125cc title. But Stoner got the first laugh in the premier class, when he won the 2007 MotoGP title after he joined the factory Ducati team.
Stoner beat Pedrosa by 125 points to lift the 2007 MotoGP title, with the Spaniard finishing second in the standings. Lorenzo would also deny Pedrosa a MotoGP title in 2010 when the two Spaniards finished first and second in the standings with 138 points between the rivals.
After Stoner joined Pedrosa in the factory Honda team for the 2011 season, the Australian also denied Lorenzo a title by 90 points. It proved to be Stoner’s last title fight as he retired following the 2012 campaign, when Lorenzo beat Pedrosa to another title but by 18 points.
Lorenzo added another title to his tally in 2015, too, but Pedrosa never managed to get over the hump and claim a championship crown. After three silver medals and taking the bronze prize in 2008, 2009 and 2013, Pedrosa never fought for the MotoGP title again in his career.
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