Pedrosa, who retired from full-time competition at the end of 2018, made his second wildcard appearance of the season at Misano last weekend.

The 31-time MotoGP race winner finished fourth in both the sprint and the grand prix, narrowly missing the podium in each contest.

His performances were met with praise from all of the riders on the grid, with Aprilia’s Espargaro – who struggled to 12th in the GP – noting that Pedrosa’s form makes you question a lot about MotoGP.

However, he also added that it would not be fair to judge the quality of the grid against Pedrosa’s one-off appearances, as “Dani is very special”.

“Dani is awesome,” Espargaro said. “I really like the way he rides. He makes you doubt everything.

  • @[email protected]English
    3•1 year ago

    That was crazy during the race as well, when commentators argued if he is going to push for podium and thereby influence the championship negatively for Bagnaia by possibly taking up important points.

    Also during the race, there are sometimes discussions how hard the active riders train, how many times per week, hours per day, what sessions they do, what training methods, how hard it is to be fit in motorcycle racing. And then the 42 year old Pedrosa, retired years ago, jumps on a bike and does… that. #4 in the race with quite a gap behind him.