A resounding victory for Marc Márquez at the Catalan meeting of the Motorcycle World Championships. In front of his fans, friends and family, Márquez put on a brilliant display at the Spanish track where he beat his rivals for the fourth time consecutively this season. With this victory, the Repsol rider has put himself at the head of the overall standings with one point in his advantage over the second placed, fellow countryman Pol Espargaró.
The race was dominated from start to finish by the iron fist of the Repsol rider who, in only 3 laps already had a little more than a half second advantage. Having started well from pole position, at the end of the straight he was overtaken by Bradley Smith, but the British rider braked late into the corner and Márquez retook first place. From then on, all that his rivals saw of the rider from Cervera was the orange tail piece of his Derbi growing ever smaller with each turn.
Having passed the halfway point of the race, Márquez had four seconds over his immediate rivals. Behind him, Smith, Espargaró and Terol also broke away from the rest of the pack and were busy battling for the remaining two positions on the podium. The event was a monologue from beginning to end for the young Márquez who, keeping his rivals at bay and with very consistent times – 1 minute 50 seconds lap after lap -, crossed the finish line with a 4,6 second advantage, so securing a win in front of the Spanish fans at the Circuit.
With this latest victory, the fourth in a row for Márquez, the pupil of Emilio Alzamora breaks all the youth records by being the youngest rider in history to win four times consecutively. It is the second time this week he has broken a Valentino Rossi record, having yesterday become the youngest rider to win three consecutive pole positions. Márquez is now placed at the top of the leaderboard with 132 points, one more than Espargaró – second – and a 14 point advantage over Terol – third – who today did not finish the race after falling on the last lap while fighting for second place with Espargaró.
Marc Márquez, 1st, 40’46.315 sec. >> Audio
“From the outset perhaps it looked like an easy race but I rode to the limit, especially at the beginning. All weekend we have been out front, which is important because it reflects confidence with the bike and the work with the team. To win at home and be riding out front is very special. It’s been an almost perfect race in which I didn’t make any mistakes, quite difficult with the distance I had from the rest of the pack as it takes a lot to stay focussed riding solo for so many laps. Behind me they were pressuring quite hard for a lot of laps which meant I had to keep a fast pace so they wouldn’t catch me. It’s a shame Nico [Terol] fell, but the World Championship is still very close-run and I’m sure in Germany he will be up front and we’ll have to watch out. Anyway, we have to keep our feet on the ground, to keep the same mentality and work ethic which we’ve had up to now for Germany”.
