Photo: motogp.com
Once more, we get to see two brothers lined up on the grid in the premiere class. The 2014 season pits the Espargaro brothers Pol and Aleix against each other, but they are far from being the first ones to be in this situation. In fact, the Espargaro brothers have a very solid MotoGP legacy to live up to and trying to make things better than their predecessors will not ne at all an easy task.
Around 4 years have passed since we last got to see two brothers racing in the same MotoGP round. Back in 2010, at the USA Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, we had Nicky Hayden and his brother Roger Lee Hayden riding for glory, Nicky Hayden was on the Factory Ducati, while his brother rode a LCR Honda machine, substituting for Randy de Puniet. Nickey finished 5th and Roger Lee came in the 11th position, both scoring points.
And speaking of points, the MotoGP series has witnessed brothers on the same podium only twice. This happened for the first time in the Argentina GP in 1962, when local brother s Juan and Eduardo Salatino finished the race in the 2nd and 3rd places, respectively. The other and the (so far) last time when we got two brothers on the MotoGP podium was in 1997 at Imola, when Nobuatsu Aoki (now a test rider for Suzuki) finished second, while his brother Takuma finished third. No brotherly 1-2 recorded so far.
When it comes to full-time riders, the last time MotoGP had brothers on the grid was in 2004, when Kenny Roberts Jr. was riding for Suzuki and his brother Kurtis was riding a Proton KR machine.
Other brother duos have been Dominique and Christian Sarron in 1989, Bernard and Marc Garcia in 1994 and 1995, Nobuatsu and Takuma Aoki in 1997, Nobuatsu and Haruchika Aoki in 1999. Despite the Aoki family having no less than three sons who raced in the premiere class, they never shared the same grid at the same time together.
The 2014 season will surely be a lot of fun watching from this perspective, especially as Aleix Espargaro proved to be extremely fast on his new Forward Yamaha machine, with rookie brother Pol still having a lot to learn about MotoGP riding and his new Yamaha Tech3 machine “inherited” from Cal Crutchlow, now a full-time Ducati rider.
Source motogp.com
And speaking of points, the MotoGP series has witnessed brothers on the same podium only twice. This happened for the first time in the Argentina GP in 1962, when local brother s Juan and Eduardo Salatino finished the race in the 2nd and 3rd places, respectively. The other and the (so far) last time when we got two brothers on the MotoGP podium was in 1997 at Imola, when Nobuatsu Aoki (now a test rider for Suzuki) finished second, while his brother Takuma finished third. No brotherly 1-2 recorded so far.
When it comes to full-time riders, the last time MotoGP had brothers on the grid was in 2004, when Kenny Roberts Jr. was riding for Suzuki and his brother Kurtis was riding a Proton KR machine.
Other brother duos have been Dominique and Christian Sarron in 1989, Bernard and Marc Garcia in 1994 and 1995, Nobuatsu and Takuma Aoki in 1997, Nobuatsu and Haruchika Aoki in 1999. Despite the Aoki family having no less than three sons who raced in the premiere class, they never shared the same grid at the same time together.
The 2014 season will surely be a lot of fun watching from this perspective, especially as Aleix Espargaro proved to be extremely fast on his new Forward Yamaha machine, with rookie brother Pol still having a lot to learn about MotoGP riding and his new Yamaha Tech3 machine “inherited” from Cal Crutchlow, now a full-time Ducati rider.
Source motogp.com
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