Marc Marquez’s bid for a fourth MotoGP title has seen him go to and beyond the limits of what Honda is capable of.
You are mighty brave if you are willing to predict who will win the MotoGP riders’ world championship this year. But probably not as brave as Marc Marquez, who seems willing to take chances no one else will in order to stay in the hunt for the title.
Think back to his desperate last corner lunge down the inside of Andrea Dovizioso’s Ducati at the Austrian Grand Prix. Marquez’s Honda squirmed as its rear wheel just avoided taking out the front of the Ducati in a move that seemed to have disaster written all over it. It didn’t come good at the end and Dovizioso won, but it was only a matter of time that Marquez’s trademark daring would show up again.
And so it did at the San Marino Grand Prix. When the dust from the race was settled, an interesting stat about Marquez and his ability to test the limits of a MotoGP machine surfaced. Since his debut in the premier class of motorcycle grand prix racing, Marquez has won 33 of the 85 races he has contested in (until this year’s San Marino GP).
That is a very high success rate of over 38 percent, as compared to just over 30 percent for Valentino Rossi, whose place in history Marquez is eventually chasing (89 wins in 296 premier class starts for the Italian so far).
On the edge
More telling however, is that Marquez has crashed 76 times over the course of those 85 MotoGP weekends he has contested in 2013. Those crashes coming in either practice, qualifying or during a race.
With three crashes prior to the 28-lap race, MotoGP followers were justified in expecting Marquez into the gravel when it mattered the most.
This was reinforced when fell in the warm-up as well, which was held in the rain that didn’t let up in time for the race either.
Then came three big moments of Marquez losing grip in the rear tyre as he and Ducati’s Dovizioso tried to gauge the conditions while the other Ducati of Jorge Lorenzo shot into the lead, opening up a lead of over four seconds.
Pramac Ducati team’s Danilo Petrucci - with nothing to lose as far as the riders’ championship is concerned - slowly but surely caught up to and snuck past both Dovizioso and Marquez as the defending world champion seemed to be on the edge of falling.
But crucially Marquez held on while Lorenzo crashed out and polesitter Maverick Vinales fell a long way back to fourth.
Crutchlow went off too as did Loris Baz, by which team the riders had a spare bike ready in case their soft-wet Michelins were not up to the task of finishing a race distance. Marquez’s spare Honda was set up for dry weather, something that looked highly unlikely.
About as unlikely as either Marquez or Dovizioso taking a chance and trying to pass Petrucci so as to make sure of points and stay in the championship hunt.
But that is exactly what Marquez did as he pushed Petrucci while Dovizioso fell back in a bid to stay on the podium and bag a crucial 16 points. Marquez, however, was after the maximum 25 and his moments of rear grip loss were forgotten as he pushed Petrucci into losing rear grip for a moment.
That was just the opening a rider as aggressive as Marquez needed as he went for the kill at the start of the final lap and ultimately finished almost 1.2 seconds ahead of Petrucci en route to setting the fastest lap of the race.
Meanwhile, Vinales brought his Yamaha home in fourth place, over 16 seconds behind Marquez and five behind Dovizioso. The race result puts Marquez in the lead of the championship but level on points with Dovizioso on 199 points with Vinales 16 points behind in third.
Rossi’s title challenge looks increasingly spent with his deficit to Marquez being 42 points and the Yamaha rider in a race against time to get back to being fit to ride a MotoGP bike before it is mathematically impossible for him to win.
Meanwhile Marquez is likely to push the limits as much as he dares in order to find them and ride on the edge of adhesion when it matters most. Ducati’s title challenge this year has been unexpected and Vinales seems unlikely to back of as well. Can Marquez really keep this up and not falter when push comes to shove?
That is what will keep many MotoGP fans on tenterhooks as the title battle looks to go down to the last race of the season again.
Write your Comment