Dovi's win was at Doni in those horrendous conditions that intermediates were invented for but riders are deprived of - and talking about tyres, Toni was the last satellite win astride the Gresini Honda on Rossi's SNS.
Actually, they were Pedro's discarded SNS tires.
On Crash.net there was some Hayden bashing including some guy saying he's only won 3 races when another responded with "That's more than a lot of rider on the grid" so I decided to look into the numbers:
Current riders:
85Valentino Rossi
37Jorge Lorenzo
26Dani Pedrosa
21Marc Marquez
3Nicky Hayden
1Toni Elias
1Andrea Dovizioso
So basically apart from the 4 aliens, Nicky is the most winning rider on the grid! It is scary though that you won't even get a single win, let alone into the double digits unless you have a factory Yam or Honda
#22, Not sure why you included
Toni Elias, as he is not currently on the grid; however, on your list should appear
Marco Melandri as he did start the season, despite him being off the grid now. He managed 5 wins in total, yet was runner up in 2005 with "only" 2 wins. In 2006, when Nicky won the title, Melandri won 3 races while only placing 4th overall, this says something about how special was that season.
I have contended that 2006 was one of the most special years in MotoGP racing history because of the parity across the board, and that is still factoring in the chickenshit advantage the SNS riders enjoyed. Think back to the history of GP, when were there so many potential race winners every given event? I dare say none. You could pick any of over 10 riders for a win any given race; and in fact 7 different riders actually did win. All the manufactures were involved in challenging for wins and certainly podiums. Not only were the satellite bikes challenging for wins, but that year privateer Team Roberts should have recorded a win at Estoril, which would have made the season ending tally of race winners a real noteworthy feat in terms of diversity and parity among the field.
I was thinking recently that the reintroduction of Laguna coinciding with the time that Nicky could benefit from his style being so closely matched to the RCV211v was more than fortuitous. Also, had it not been for the fatal accident that befell Kato, Nicky may not have even retained the ride come 2005.
Arrabi, why do you think HRC--a company who .... knows how they arrive at their decision making, would have replaced Nicky for Kato in 2005? Nicky beat his teammate Biaggi in the championship standings, 3rd and 5th respectively, where Nicky was the only race winner between the two that year to boot. So Nicky was already showing signs of championship potential (assuming this is the notion you're using for your prediction) even against what at the time should have been the standard of potential in Biaggi. Though as you know, that wasn't the story, as Biaggi had already worn out his welcome at HRC despite his potential. There is no telling how Kato would have faired past his untimely death in 2003, two years removed to 2005 is a rather long time in racing to make a prediction. Think about the 250 riders who never quite lived up to their potential, starting with Biaggi as the standard of that notion. Sure our intuition might lead us to believe that HRC would have been desperate to have a Japanese rider 'raising' the Sun Flag (if memory serves, only two non-Italians won in 05, a Brazilian and an American) but between Suzuka 03 (Kato died in the opening race of the season) to 05, there is no telling what his 250 potential may have looked like by the end of the MotoGP 'category' season. That is to say, sure Kato dominated his 250 championship (Biaggi had 4 of those) but I don't remember 02 being a particularly good year for Kato, as I recall lots of retirements. He was given a RC211V at the end of the season, you would have thought if HRC were going to treat him as their son they might have given him VR's treatment from the get go. But they didn't, they let him .... about on the NSR500 for whatever stupid reason while VR was destroying the field on the RC211V, the absolute best machine that year.
Edit to add: now that I think about it, had Kato received the same treatment as Marquez did, history indeed may have been rewritten as you contemplate its possibility. A correlation could be made between Kato and Marquez regarding their potential. In fact Kato decimated during his championship 250 year. Which is why we often and rightfully believe Kato would have eventually been a prolific champion in MotoGP. I've said this before but I do not believe Marquez would have won a championship on a satellite Honda. And without that championship there is no telling what Marquez' future would have looked like the following year. Because he may have overwritten and injured himself. The problems he has had this year support my analysis. Marquez unlike Kato was given the factory support on the best machine at the time. I recall having a conversation with you while we drove back from Silverstone in the pouring rain. The particular term that I remember us using was "altered records". We used this term in relation to the Saturday night specials. I think here we can use a similar corollary to imagine how the record books may have been altered, though in reverse. Forgive me for making another correlation but Casey Stoner going to a satellite on .... tires, may have never been given an opportunity for a championship had it not been for that "fortuitous" 3rd pick by Ducati to ride the GP07.
