Freddie Spencer

500-cc World Champion ― 1983 and 1985

‘The thing about marc is that you don’t come at him head-on. what you do is you choose your moment, which is what’s made Dovizioso so successful when he’s racing against him. Dovizioso uses that one-shot tactic; he leaves his chance to that moment where marc can’t come back at him. marc learns quickly, so if you give him another lap, the result will probably be different.

‘it’s like sweden 1983 [when spencer passed roberts to win that year’s world title]. i knew i only had one shot. i couldn’t even draft kenny down the back straight, so the only chance i had was to make him tighten his line in the corner leading on to the straight, which would make his exit slower and give me a chance of drafting him and passing him. For the last five or six laps i kept showing him my front wheel at that corner, so on the last lap he tightens his line to stop me passing, while i take a wider line. i get the best drive i’ve had all race, so i draft him and pass him at the next corner. everybody thinks i won the championship at that corner, but i didn’t. i won it at the previous corner!

‘most people never see that part of it — they have no idea what we’re thinking about. Kenny and I were figuring out our strategies just like Marc and Dovizioso figure out theirs — it’s the exact same thing.

‘i respect marc because of his adaptability, his ability to work his way around things and the fact that he learns really fast. a lot of people criticize him for crashing, but i was sometimes a bit like that. i’d have most of my crashes in testing and, normally, i’d never crash in a race, which is like marc; because, usually, he’s got it figured out by then.’