Marc Lopez makes history and wins the championship in Valencia.
At 20 years old, Marc Márquez became the youngest champion in MotoGP history this Sunday, with a third-place finish in the 18th and final round in Valencia, Spain; after 35 years, a rider has won the title in his debut season in the premier class.
Autoracing.com.br - A historic Sunday for motorcycle racing. At 20 years old, Marc Márquez became the youngest champion in MotoGP history this Sunday, with a third-place finish in the 18th and final round in Valencia, Spain. After 35 years, a rider has won the title in his debut season in the premier class.
Márquez celebrated wildly after the checkered flag. He finished the championship four points ahead of his biggest rival, fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), who secured his eighth victory of the season, but it was all for nothing: Márquez won "only" six races but was more consistent.
The race in Valencia was quite competitive in its first half. Starting from pole position, Márquez dropped to third, behind Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, who then battled for the lead. The Honda rider overtook the Yamaha rider several times, but was always overtaken again in a thrilling duel.
Meanwhile, the championship leader remained quietly in third place. Until the Yamaha rider pushed Pedrosa, who dropped to fifth in a maneuver that will be investigated after the race and which promoted Márquez to first.
Lorenzo recovered, overtook his rival and consolidated his lead. Meanwhile, Márquez was content with second place and Pedrosa was recovering. In a more monotonous second half of the race, the highlight was the recovery of the second Honda rider, who passed Álvaro Bautista (Gresini Honda), Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) and Márquez, returning to second place.
Rossi finished in fourth position, winning a duel with Bautista. Behind them were Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) and Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Yamaha). Nicky Hayden bid farewell to Ducati, winning a personal duel with Andrea Dovizioso.
Two crashes marked the race. The first was Cal Crutchlow's, who said goodbye to Tech 3 Yamaha in the worst possible way. In the end, it was Andrea Iannone (Pramac) who went down.
Test classification:
Pos. Pilot Team Moto Time/Dif.
1 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 46'10.302
2 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team Honda +3.934
3 Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team Honda +7.357
4 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha +10.579
5 Alvaro BAUTISTA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda +14.965
6 Stefan BRADL LCR Honda MotoGP Honda +24.399
7 Bradley SMITH Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +29.043
8 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team Ducati +39.893
9 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team Ducati +53.196
10 Michele PIRRO Ducati Test Team Ducati +1'02.983
11 Aleix ESPARGARO Power Electronics Aspar ART +1'04.197
12 Hector BARBERA Avintia Blusens FTR +1'06.826
13 Claudio CORTI NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki +1'11.481
14 Danilo PETRUCCI Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter +1'13.643
15 Colin EDWARDS NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki +1'24.249
16 Hiroshi AOYAMA Avintia Blusens FTR +1'33.010
17 Michael LAVERTY Paul Bird Motorsport ART 1 Lap
18 Luca SCASSA Cardion AB Motoracing ART 1 Lap
19 Bryan STARTING GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda 1 Lap
20 Martin BAUER Remus Racing Team S&B Suter 1 Lap
Dropouts:
Andrea IANNONE Energy TI Pramac Racing Ducati 4 Laps
Randy DE PUNIET Power Electronics Aspar ART 7 Voltas
Cal CRUTCHLOW Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 21 Laps
Yonny HERNANDEZ Ignite Pramac Racing Ducati 22 Laps
Lukas PESEK Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 27 Laps
Damian CUDLIN Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 27 Laps