Wayne Gardner

500-cc World Champion ― 1987

‘marc is an incredible talent. He puts a lot of effort into his dirt-track training, which is why he can control the bike so delicately. If I wanted to beat him, I’d schedule a good dirt-track training programme. the level of riding in motoGP is so high now because of all the extra riding they’re doing.

‘then there’s always mind games going on. eddie [lawson] used to play those games with me all the time — he would wind me up in the media. So, of course, I’d do the same to marc. every rider has his weaknesses, so marc must have his. you’ve got to study your competitors and find out the flaws in them, whether it’s in their equipment or their skills. He does crash too often. He’s very skilled at saving crashes, but one day one of the crashes that he doesn’t save will catch him out — he’ll get caught up with the bike or something — and that will pull him up.’