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Dani Pedrosa & Marc Márquez: the present and the future
The World Championship is on its short summer break at the moment but Spanish motorcycling is on the crest of a wave this season: with riders racing at a high level and possible winners in the three title categories coming out of the hard-fought battles that are seen every race weekend. The fights to carry off the title are the closest seen in the last few years and so Dani Pedrosa has become one of the reference points in Spanish sports after his magnificent performances in the first half of the World Championship and so has Marc Márquez; in his debut season he is being tipped as a star of the future.
In a year that Spanish teams are proving they are world class it is more difficult to stand out as an individual. Nevertheless, Dani Pedrosa has been able to make his mark and become one of the most popular sportsmen among Spanish fans, simply because the Repsol rider is having a great season. The rider ended the 2007 season in great form and he just carried on riding spectacularly when the 2008 World Championship got under way.
Pedrosa finished on the podium in the first four races of the season (3rd in Qatar, 1st in Jerez and 2nd in Portugal), with a perfect victory in front of his compatriots in the Spanish GP. After a deserved 4th place in France he was back in the top three again (2nd in Italy, 1st in Catalunya in another unfogettable race, 3rd in Great Britain and 2nd in The Netherlands). A fall in Germany stopped him from finishing a race that he was in control of and prevented him from riding in this year`s date in the USA.
The Spanish rider has also demonstrated that he is one of the most consistent riders in the championship and in spite of not having been able to win points in the last two races is still in with a good chance of winning the world title where he was the leader for several weeks. At this moment in time Dani Pedrosa is just 16 points behind Casey Stoner and 41 behind the leader Valentino Rossi.
On the other hand, and at the tender age of just 15, Marc Márquez is one of the youngest riders in the World Championship, and at the same time one of the new riders tipped to have a great future. This young Spanish rider began the season later than the rest of the riders as he picked up an injury in the pre-season, this meant he could not take part in the two first races. However, he knew what he had to do and by the fifth race he got his first ever podium finish, 3rd in the UK. His name is now part of the history of this sport in Spain, because with this achievement he became the youngest ever Spanish rider to finish on the podium.
8/5/2008
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