Pedrosa, Rossi and Biaggi...

Dani Pedrosa's second victory of his debut MotoGP season, last time out at Donington Park, both establishes him as a genuine championship contender and compares very favourably with Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi at the same stage in their careers.

The following table shows Pedrosa's achievements after his first nine races in the premier-class with those of Rossi and Biaggi - the two riders who have made the greatest recent impact during their debut season in the top class.

As can be seen, Pedrosa has the most wins and pole positions of the trio - but is behind Biaggi in terms of both podiums and points scored.

Biaggi went on to finish second in the 1998 500cc World Championship behind Mick Doohan, with two race wins, while Rossi also finished his debut 2000 season second in the 500cc championship standings - behind Kenny Roberts Jr - and with two races wins to his credit.

Pedrosa is currently second in the MotoGP championship standings, 26-points behind Repsol Honda team-mate Nicky Hayden. Biaggi was also second in the championship at this stage - and just 12 points from Doohan - but Rossi was only fifth and 53 points behind Roberts, before finishing on the podium in all but one of the remaining seven races of 2000.

Pedrosa, Biaggi and Rossi's first nine premier-class races:

Dani Pedrosa (2006): 2 (wins) 5 (podiums) 3 (poles) 127 (points)Max Biaggi (1998): 1 (wins) 6 (podiums) 2 (poles) 148 (points)Valentino Rossi (2000): 1 (wins) 4 (podiums) 0 (poles) 92 (points)