P128
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
H
ands up anyone who was
delighted to see Dani Pe-
drosa win fair and square
in a dry race at Misano a couple
of weeks ago.
Rather surprisingly, to those
of us who remember the little
feller turning up in 2001 as one
of a trio of young teenage gradu-
ates of the nascent Telefonica
young-rider training program,
had he not done so, he would
have been in danger of his first
year in MotoGP without a GP
victory. The first of 11 years in the
premier class (or, counting 250s
and 125s, an amazing 15 years)
without champagne spilling over,
the course of which Dani has
gone from a sullen beginner to
a nowadays cheerful and often
amusing elder statesman.
As refreshingly, he is marvel-
ously matter-of-fact. Nobody
deals with the reliably banal of-
ficial questions at the racetrack
press conferences with quite
Dani's disdain. Where, after
a race win or a pole position,
Rossi might respond to a "you
must be very pleased" with a
carefully crafted sound bite; Lo-
renzo might use the opportunity
to get a complaint off his chest,
or countless others to get in a
sponsor plug, Dani will simply
OH, DANI BOY
