Grand Prix motorcycle racing, also known as the MotoGP World Championship, has produced some memorable champions since its inception in 1949. Motorcyclists race purpose-built bikes with four-stroke engines that are not available for the general public to buy, and they race them. on 18 circuits in 13 different countries including the United States, Italy and Australia. Just to name a few. It is a grueling and tough racing system that requires concentrated focus and dedication from the racers. Yet in MotoGP’s more than 60 years, some prominent riders have risen to the top of the sport. Here is a list of the 10 greatest MotoGP racers of all time.
Mike Hailwood
Known as Mike the Bike, Hailwood worked at the family motorcycle dealership before racing for Honda and MV Augusta, winning four consecutive world championships and 14 TT races before racing in F1 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He died in a car accident in 1981 with his nine-year-old daughter.
Marc Marquez
Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle road racer Marc Marquez is one of the most successful racers in the world. He has seven world championships to his credit, five of which are in the premier category. He got his nickname ‘Ant of Cervera’ because he is known for his wild riding style. He is only one of four riders to have achieved world championships in three different categories.
He is one of the greatest inventors the world has ever known, because of his extreme twisting technique of leaning on a bike that looks like it will fall over. He is only the third Spaniard to win a premier class title after Alex Crivil and Jorge Lorenzo.
Giacomo Agostini
The Italian great never got a chance to race in the Grand Prix of America, but he certainly didn’t let that limit the number of races and titles he won in his long and distinguished career. He won eight MotoGP World Championships in the 1960s and 1970s.
He also won several other titles including the Isle of Man TT race. But after the death of a friend on the controversial course, he led a successful boycott that resulted in his being dropped from the program. Agostini also made the move to F1 at the end of his career but will always be remembered as a MotoGP legend.
Valentino Rossi
Valentino Rossi is an Italian professional motorcycle road racer and multiple-time MotoGP World Champion. Rossi is considered one of the greatest motorcyclists of all time. He had a total of nine Grand Prix world championships, seven of which were in the premier class. Rossi is the only road racer in history to have competed in 400 or more Grands Prix.
He is a MotoGP winner with both Honda and Yamaha. He won the MotoGP World Championship with the factory Honda team in 2002 and 2003, and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha. Valentino Rossi is definitely the MotoGP GOAT and the figures clearly show why he is the best of all time. Rossi’s statistics are so incredible that not even the great Giacomo Agostini can come close to them.
Kenny Roberts
Kenny Roberts Sr. is an American former motorcycle road racer and team owner. He was the first American to win the MotoGP World Championship in 1978. Roberts is one of only four competitors in the history of the Senior American Motorcyclists Association. He won this championship.
He is renowned for his world championships and is a proponent of high racing safety standards. He suggested the establishment of an independent motorcycle competition in 1979, ending the dominance of the Fédération International de Motorcycles. This led to better security practices and a new era for professional sports.
Jorge Lorenzo
Jorge Lorenzo has 47 wins and 114 podium finishes. He won three world championship titles in 2010, 2012 and 2015. Lorenzo rides for Yamaha, Ducati and Repsol Honda. 383 points in 2010, his first title-winning season. He is one of the best MotoGP racers of all time in modern times.
Casey Stoner
He retired relatively young and won only two world championships, but Australian racer Casey Stoner is widely regarded as one of the greatest motorcyclists in history. Casey Stoner, two-time MotoGP world champion in 2007 and 2011, was known for his ability to push any motorcycle beyond its limits, after both Honda and Yamaha made great strides in developing their motorcycles. It was a low cost Ducati bike. But had won.
Stoner was also known for having exceptional control of his motorcycles, even at high speeds. On 17 May 2012, at the French Grand Prix, Casey Stoner announced that he would retire from MotoGP at the end of the 2012 season, saying that he no longer enjoyed competing in the sport. Many believed that he retired too early and could have achieved much more if he had raced for a better team than Ducati.
John Surtees
Revered by the likes of Rossi for being the only racer to win the premier class world title in both motorcycle and car racing. He raced for iconic brands Norton and MV Augusta before racing for F1 teams including Lotus and Ferrari, winning the 1964 title. He died in 2017.
Michael Doohan
Michael Doohan, also known as Mick, is a retired Australian motorcycle road racing world champion. He has won five consecutive 500cc world championships. Only Giacomo Agostini with eight and Valentino Rossi with seven have won more world championships in the premier class than Mick. In the early 1980s, Mick raced in Australian Superbikes, where he won the World Championship in 1988.
He is in the rare category of racers who have won the Superbike World Championship in the 500cc category. He began his MotoGP career in 1989 with Honda on an NSR 500 cc two-stroke motorcycle. He made an immediate impact by winning the World Championships in 1990. He was winning the World Championships in 1991, before he was seriously injured and nearly faced amputation. in his right leg.
Eddie Lawson
Eddie Lawson is a former four-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing world champion. His tendency not to crash and score points consistently earned him the nickname “Steady Eddie”. Lawson won three titles for the Agostini Yamaha team during his six-year tenure. Lawson’s dominant year is 1984 when he begins to win regularly and wins the prestigious 1984 World Championship.
In 1985, he won the prestigious Imola 200 pre-season race. After two more successful stints with Yamaha in 1986 and 1988, Lawson stunned the racing world by announcing he was joining arch-rivals Rothmans Honda. His move proved fruitful and he won the 1989 title for Honda. He also became the first rider to win back-to-back championships from different manufacturers, a feat later repeated by the great Valentino Rossi in 2004.
When he retired from Grand Prix racing in the early 1990s, he stood third on the all-time MotoGP class (then known as 500GP) Grand Prix wins list with 31. Lawson finished his career with 31 wins and 78 podium finishes from 127 starts.
