The Repsol rider finishes the Japanese Grand Prix in second place and takes the lead of the overall standings with an advantage of one point
The statistics of this year say that when Marc Márquez scores in a Moto2 race, he is in first or second position; a consistency that, after the retirements of the first races, has taken him to the first position of the Championship three rounds before the end. Despite confidence problems during the weekend, the Repsol rider was able to finish second and take seven points more than Stefan Bradl, who he has overtaken in the overall standings by one point.
From the moment the red lights went out, it was clear that the strongest man today was Andrea Iannone. The Italian started from the first row led by Márquez, but he overtook the Spanish rider before reaching the first corner and tried to build some margin to secure his first victory of the season. Márquez would not let him escape and was always at his wheel, followed by Simone Corsi and Stefan Bradl who, starting from the eighth place, overtook four rivals in the first laps to be part of the group of first riders that spearheaded the race.
After seven laps, Márquez launched an attack and took the lead but, contrary to the last few races, he was not able to escape from his rivals and a lap later was overtaken by Iannone and even Bradl. Just a few corners later, he recovered the second place, but by that time Iannone had pushed to the limit, setting the fastest lap of the race and building some advantage over the Spaniard. Emilio Alzamora’s pupil tried to recover the lost ground and, although he was able to set a margin over Corsi y Bradl, he could not catch Iannone.
Five laps from the end, a technical problem for the Italian —his engine stop for a second— allowed Márquez to take the lead of the race, but it was only for a lap, the time Iannone took to recover the lost ground and overtake the Repsol rider, on his way to victory. With Bradl fighting for the third place of the podium several seconds behind, Márquez settled for the second position, which was rewarded with the final fourth position for the German, a result that leaves the Spaniard as leader of the World Championship by one point, only three races before the end of the championship.
Marc Márquez >> Audio
2nd at 1.999 sec.
“It was a difficult race. Maybe here we did not find the perfect setup, but the team did a very good job, improving during the weekend. Today Iannone was a bit faster and I tried to do my best to win the race, but it is true that in the last laps I thought a bit more about the Championship and I saw on the board ten laps before the end that they said “P2 OK”. Today it was a tough race for us, but to finish in second place when we do not have a perfect setup is a very good result”.
