Double MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda
RC213V) scored his 13th victory of 2014 at Valencia to become the most
successful rider over the course of Moto GP – the world’s most premier
championship of road racing since 1949. The 21-year-old Spanish racer took the
record from another Repsol Honda rider, Mick Doohan, who won 12 races during
the 1997 500cc World Championship.
Teammate Dani Pedrossa consolidated third place resulting in
Repsol Honda winning their 7th Team Championship (since the beginning of the
MotoGP class in 2002) to add to the Rider and Constructor Championships and
marking Honda's third Triple Crown in four years and second in succession.
Earlier in the day Marquez was gladdened by the Moto3 World
Championship achieved by his younger brother Alex Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0
Honda NSF250RW), which makes the pair the first siblings to win Grand Prix
world titles since the dawn of motorcycle Grand Prix racing in 1949.
This was Marquez's 19th career MotoGP win and his 45th in
total across three categories The 21-year-old who last year became the youngest
rider to win the premier-class title and this year the youngest rider to win
the world's most important motorcycling prize twice in succession.
Marquez's record-breaking MotoGP ride was nerve-wracking in
the extreme, with light drizzle falling after half-distance which had several
riders enter the pits to change to their number-two bikes fitted with rain tyres.
Marquez - who had made his way into the lead from third place at the end of the
first lap - saw his lap times drop several seconds as the rainfall reduced
grip. But he bravely and correctly decided to continue on slicks, despite a
fall at the recent Aragon Grand Prix, where he had come to grief on a dampened
track while using slicks.
All this time he was under serious pressure from Valentino
Rossi (Yamaha) who doggedly chased the youngster until the track started drying
out and Marquez increased his pace again to beat the Italian by 3.5 seconds,
with team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) crossing the line in third
place. The pair's Valencia results were enough to win Repsol Honda the team's
title for the second consecutive year. Honda had already won the MotoGP
Constructors World Championship, for the fourth consecutive time.