Come on; you know that you should never let facts get in the way of a strong opinion!
The facts are that Pedrosa (love him or hate him) has more wins, more podiums and more points than Hayden will ever get in MotoGP. The fact that Hayden won a championship and Pedrosa didn't never tells the whole story, although the record books will of course reflect that.
I wouldn't expect a US based forum to agree with me though, unless Dani suddenly takes up Texan citizenship
THE YEAR that Nicky won, he was on the podium far more often than Pedrosa (or anyone else THAT year). After that, since Honda built the bike around Pedrosa (despite the fact that Nicky was the world champion) he never again had a shot. He also found himself on inferior equipment to the rest of the field. The two years he shared the Ducati with Rossi, they were NOT all that far apart.
You guys should be lawyers or politicians. You just love twisting words around to support your own positions.
Lorenzo has been on the podium more times than Pedrosa, despite the fact that Pedrosa has been in the series at least one year LONGER than he has.
Hayden has been in MotoGp since 2003. In ALL of that time he has been on a factory bike except this year and was team mate to world champions on identical machinery on a number of those years, so no excuses about inferior machinery. his stats so far are....
3 wins, 9 second places, 19 third places (28 podiums total), 7 fastest race laps and 5 pole positions. One world championship. His last (and probably last) in MotoGp was in 2006. Hayden won the championship with 252 points andhas never scored more than 163 in a single season since.
Pedrosa has been in MotoGp since 2006 (3 years less!) and been on the Honda all the time, which again has not always been the very best bike and he also has seen his team mate win championships, so no excuses either. His stats read...
25 wins, 35 second places, 27 third places (87 podiums total), 26 pole positions and 40 fastest laps. he also has 2 250 world championships and one 125 championship before that. He had as many wins last year than Hayden has had his entire GP career. His lowest points score since 2006 has been 215 and in 2012 scored 332 points and still didn't win the title!
Lorenzo actually only has 75 podiums in total in MotoGP (31 wins,30 seconds,14 thirds).
All info courtesy of MotoGp.com
Now please try and tell me I am twisting something when I say that Pedrosa has a much better record than Hayden?
Jamie that was kind of interesting. You know I have no idea why any tire company would want to be the sole tire source. If things go wrong and one of the front runners has problem with the tires it is there fault. If things are all right all they get is "big deal".
I'm a big fan of Nicky. He is certainly a top rider but he is not and never has been at the level of Pedrosi, Rossi or MM.
Of course none of us really has the knowledge or skill to judge any of these guys. I can't see what Freddy Spenser or Kevin Cameron see when they watch these guys so my opinion is coming from ignorance.
^^Court, you know that if you are beaten at something, even once, it means you don't deserve to compete ever again. To continue to do so in an attempt to improve just makes no sense.
Blake he beat them fair and square no gifts but he was not able to beat those guys head to head on a regular basis. Lots of guys have won championships in lots of sports and have not been the best at the time they won the championship. Doug Chandler won several AMA titles and I don't think he was any where near the best in the US at that time BUT he was focused on winning titles not individual contest.
Nicky was very good, certainly in the top 5 of his era but not better than Rossi or Dani or Stoner. Winning a title takes talent, teamwork, a top bike and luck. Lots of one time winners out there and most were not the best of their era.
Dani is very good, he may join Sterling Moss with the dubious distinction of being the best who never won a world championship.
Colin Edwards fifth fastest this morning? He must've found SOMETHING. Wow!
I think he has realised the potential of the ultra soft Open class tyre at last.
Sadly they won't be using it in the race so it will be business as usual
I'd be very surprised if Marquez doesn't clear off from pole position once again....unless he fancies playing with the opposition for a while before suddenly opening a 1/2 second a lap lead...again.
The good news is..at least Tito Rabbat isn't on pole in Moto2, so there is a little change form last week.
Given we hardly saw any TV coverage of Marquez, all I could say was the best bike stormed off into the distance. I was not able to appraise Marquez's riding consequently.
What I would say is Rossi is on it. With him on a more competitive bike we would be watching great racing and not another boring procession!
From my several vantage points on Motogp.com, I can tell you that Marquez ran a perfect race.
I was a bit put off by the poor sportsmanship displayed by Jorge. Straight into the garage and out of sight, didn't even congratulate his teammate much less his opponents.
Lorenzo said he was struggling for fitness after his winter medical operations, although that didn't seem to slow Marquez down, who missed most of winter testing with a broken leg.
Funnily enough, Lorenzo's team manager said he thought Jorge was fitted than ever but that he was struggling with tyres.
Either way, Marquez looks to have really got into Lorenzo's head in a big way!
FP1 times from France...Looks like it 'might' be a bit closer this weekend at least (or is that just wishful thinking....)
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ Honda 1'34.328 2 26 Dani PEDROSA Honda 1'34.517 3 46 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha 1'34.581 4 99 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha 1'34.598 5 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Honda 1'34.653 6 6 Stefan BRADL Honda 1'34.734 7 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati 1'34.875 8 44 Pol ESPARGARO Yamaha 1'34.929 9 29 Andrea IANNONE Ducati 1'34.933 10 41 Aleix ESPARGARO Forward Yamaha 1'35.073 11 38 Bradley SMITH Yamaha 1'35.431 12 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW Ducati 1'35.438 13 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA Honda 1'35.638 14 69 Nicky HAYDEN Honda 1'35.762 15 5 Colin EDWARDS Forward Yamaha 1'36.149 16 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ Ducati 1'36.458 17 45 Scott REDDING Honda 1'36.663 18 63 Mike DI MEGLIO Avintia 1'37.026 19 17 Karel ABRAHAM Honda 1'37.120 20 8 Hector BARBERA Avintia 1'37.404 21 23 Broc PARKES PBM 1'38.933 22 70 Michael LAVERTY PBM 1'39.055
I have to wonder how much longer Paul Bird will be willing to throw money at his pet MotoGp project, given the lack of progress and the 'cold shoulder' from ART/Aprilia.
Based on the first two practice sessions, unless there is some kind of MIRACLE tomorrow during qualifying there doesn't seem to be much point in watching the race on Sunday.
Just give the friggin' trophy to Marquez and Repsol Honda and move on to 2015 already.
As was reported in MCN this week, we now enter Rossi's four best tracks. Rossi said he shouldn't ever say this in racing, but Marquez seems unbeatable. Rossi also said he's going to try and beat him. If anyone can this season, on current form it'[s Rossi. Can the Yamaha beat the Honda is the real question.