Rossi Win Leader
The 2010 rider entry list for MotoGP makes-up one of the strongest grids ever. With 13 of the 17 riders having won World Championship titles and 16 riders who have won races at World Championship level.
To get to this top-notch list, a number of changes in the full-time entry list have occurred between last year and the start of the motorcycle-racing season.
Many of the last year riders who could not cut the mustard have gone. These riders, competent as they may be, did not have what it takes to consistently run upfront in MotoGP. This group of xMotoGP riders includes: James Toseland, Chris Vermeulen, Toni Elias, Alex de Angelis, Nicola Canepa, Yuki Takahashi and his mid-season replacement Gabor Talmacsi, and Sete Gibernau who competed in six races in the early part of 2009.
With many talented riders exiting the MotoGP class, full-time entrants with better prospects have backfilled the gird. The new entries for 2010 include; Hiroshi Aoyama, Hector Barbera, Alvaro Bautista, Marco Simoncelli, Ben Spies and Aleix Espargaro who raced as a replacement rider in four races in 2009.
The only rider competing in MotoGP in 2010 who has not won a world championship race is new Ducati recruit Aleix Espargaro.
The strength of the MotoGP grid can be illustrated by the following facts about the riders lining up:
> Valentino Rossi enters the season with 9 World Championships and 103 race wins. The next closest is Dani Pedrosa with 3 World Championships and 31 race wins.
> Although 1 MotoGP Championship is under his belt, Nicky Hayden has the least amount of race wins with a total of 3.
> Casey Stoner has 27 wins, 1 World Championship title compared to Jorge Lorenzo with 2 titles and 26 wins.
> There are thirteen riders who have won motorcycling World Titles in either Grand Prix or Superbikes.
> These thirteen riders have won a total of twenty-seven World Championship titles between them.
> Of the seventeen riders competing full-time in the MotoGP class in 2010, sixteen have had race victories at World Championship level in either Grand Prix or Superbikes.
> Between them these sixteen riders have scored 362 race victories at world championship level.
> The combined total of Grand Prix victories for the full-time entry of riders is 317; while the current record for the combined number of Grand Prix wins for all riders starting a GP is 289 at the Dutch TT last year.
> The oldest rider on the grid will be Loris Capirossi who celebrated his 37th birthday exactly one week before the GP in Qatar.
> The youngest rider is Spanish rider Aleix Espargaro, who is just 20 years old.
