etusch wrote: ↑11 Jul 2025, 09:57
kurtj wrote: ↑17 Jun 2025, 18:55
I really never understood why Stoner was rated highly. He drove two really good bikes in the years when he won the titles. He failed to succeed the following years when those bikes didn't evolve to be as good as they were in the previous year. But otherwise, he was just ordinary. I think riders like Dovi, Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and Jorge Martin have done better, although Dovi and Pedrosa didn't enjoy title success. Comparing Stoner to Marquez is really too much of a stretch.
If you put Rossi or Marquez as rival of Stoner, what you said can be said, maybe.
The other guys good off course but not comparable with th 3 I mentioned. Your comment is alread self rejecting one.
For example, you see Jorge Marting better, but he could be champion only with best bike, and when he change the bike can not even ride properly that bike. Pedrosa could not be champion even when honda is the best bike over there. Dovi is also same.
Pedrosa is one of the best riders in history to never win a championship. It's true he never
quite got it done even on a great bike, but in the times where he had such a bike, the grid had more top talents than perhaps ever in MotoGP, and at least a couple of them tended to also have a great bike, or at least in the case of Stoner - a bike he could ride like nobody else.
All that to say - Pedrosa comprehensively beat Dovizioso over their years as teammates. It's no question. It wouldn't even be reasonable to put Dovi on the same level as Pedrosa, much less Stoner.
Anyways, watching the Sprint, there's something almost animalistic watching Marquez carve through a field. It really does give me the vibes of a predator stalking their prey.
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