Both men are now in MotoGP retirement - ♌but while Rossi shone with seven championships in the꧒ premier class, the title always eluded Pedrosa.

The Spaniard was a three-time r🐓unner-up during his Honda heyday but could never pip the likes of Rossi to the top prize.

“The str🌼ategy Rossi used wasn’t being the fastest, which was my mentality, for example,” Pedrosa told DAZN. 

“His w✅as: ‘I’ll go and, if I can slow him 🍰down, I’ll slow him down.’ 

“He would block you until you got agitated and made mistakes. He did it with Casey Stoner and very often with me. It took me a long time to c♌hange my strategy.

“He was preparing the bike to brake late. He’d fix the fo♐rks, start braking with an open throttle, and do it a little later than the others. 

“For example, at Montmelo in 2009, it♏ wa🅷s impossible to overtake him in braking, because he was braking 15 metres after the others.”

Pedrosa brought his own career to an end four years ago. He was a three-time world champion (once in 125cc, twice in 250cc). He won ☂31 MotoGP races and is the most successful rider of all time in the premier class to never win the title.

Now a KTM test rider, he said about retiring: “It’s so🏅mething that knocks on the door, little by little. Or, at least, that’s what happened to me.

“Suddenly, you have a feeling one day, but you𓆉 keep going. Then, a lot later, another call comes that you ref🔯use. Then these calls become more and more constant.

“Until the time comes when you say ‘enough’. I had an accident once with🉐 another rider, and I had to have hand surgery. I was in the hospital. I woke up after the operation, and I told my parents, ‘It’s over’. 

“I didn’t want to be in the hospital every da𓆏y, and that pushed me to reach the decisio♏n more seriously.”