After a thrilling finale last weekend at Valencia, MotoGP has crowned its youngest ever world champion in Marc Marquez, who has re-written the record books over the course of his season-long duel with defending champion Jorge Lorenzo.
As well as clinching the first of what will surely be many MotoGP titles at the age of just 20, Marquez has become the first rider to win the series at his first attempt since Kenny Roberts back in 1978. And, just as Roberts put his stamp on the championship all those years ago, Marquez already appears to have made a similar impact.
Just as Roberts is credited with being the first to adopt the now-ubiquitous riding style of hanging off the side of the bike mid-corner, knee down, Marquez seems to have sparked a trend whereby the majority of the riders now lean over in the corners to the extent that their elbows drag along the tarmac too.
Despite his imperious record in the lower categories, few were considering Marquez as a genuine title contender back when the season got underway under lights in Qatar in April; fewer still would have predicted that Marquez would go on to win six races, take nine pole positions and appear on the podium 16 times. In fact, there were only two occasions when he was off the podium all season.
The first came relatively early in the season at Mugello, where Marquez fell from his bike whilst chasing race leader Lorenzo, while the second came in slightly more unusual circumstances at Phillip Island – the first race at which Marquez had a chance of sealing a title that seemed destined to be his since he reeled off an incredible four race wins in a row during the summer.
The Phillip Island race featured a compulsory pit-stop as a result of the fact that the tyres that had been supplied by Bridgestone couldn’t cope with the whole race distance. The organisers mandated a two-lap pit window in which the riders had to come in for a change of bike, but thanks to a blunder by his Honda pit crew, Marquez missed it and was disqualified as a result.
This blew open the title fight and brought Marquez’s closest championship rival Lorenzo back into contention. The Yamaha rider, having recovered from fracturing his collarbone at Assen, fought valiantly to claw back the lost ground during Marquez’s mid-season domination, his sheer determination epitomised by this epic duel the pair had at Silverstone:
That victory was the first of five Lorenzo took in the final seven races of the year, setting up a final-race title showdown in which Lorenzo would have to win to have any realistic chance of overcoming Marquez.
This is exactly what Lorenzo did, but Marquez crossed the line in third place to comfortably secure the points he needed to get the job done. The way he handled the pressure of the situation in front of 90,000 home fans was nothing short of remarkable for somebody of such a tender age.
And, if Marquez is this quick and error-free now, just how good will he be five years down the line? It’s a good thing the championship has Lorenzo, or else MotoGP fans would most likely be in for a lengthy and tedious period of Marquez domination, particularly when you consider how poorly his other main rivals fared this year.
Chief among these is his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa, who, with the departure of former champion Casey Stoner from the team, seemed to have his best shot yet of securing a long-awaited first MotoGP title. But, he was only able to win half as many races as Marquez, generally looking like a mere shadow of the rider who had dominated the latter half of the 2012 season.
His misfortune of being paired with Marquez just as Stoner left the scene was perfectly symbolised by an incident at Aragon which effectively extinguished Pedrosa’s already faint title hopes. The slightest contact from an attacking Marquez was enough to cause Pedrosa’s traction control system to fail, the 28-year-old promptly flying over the handlebars at the very next corner.
Another rider whose future prospects seem bleak is seven-time champion Valentino Rossi, who returned to Yamaha alongside Lorenzo this year following a barren two-year spell at Ducati. A breakthrough win at Assen proved to be a false dawn as the man nicknamed ‘The Doctor’ failed to finish higher than third for the remainder of the year.
Parting ways with long-time crew chief Jerry Burgess is the latest step Rossi has taken in order to re-capture past glories, but at 34 years of age, the Italian is now one of the elder statesmen of the grid and is probably destined for sporadic race victories at best until he hangs up his leathers.
Comparisons will inevitably drawn between the newly-crowned Marquez and Rossi, whose incredible success the Spaniard undoubtedly has the talent to emulate in time. Not only that, but Marquez appears to also have the same happy-go-lucky demeanour that made Rossi so popular in spite of his overwhelming domination for much of the 2000s.
It was also Rossi’s famous rivalries with the likes of Max Biaggi and Sete Gibernau that kept interest in MotoGP afloat during this period, and the evidence suggests that Marquez vs. Lorenzo could be the latest in a long line of spectacular head-to-heads that have given the sport such a rich heritage.
It may be one-nil to Marquez for now, but expect Lorenzo to be determined to even the score next year.
Jamie Klein, Online Sport Editor
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