Repsol Honda Team rider takes thirteenth win in a single season, surpassing Mick Doohan’s record. Dani Pedrosa, third, joins him on the podium.
The Valencian Grand Prix brought the 2014 season to a close in style, with Marc Marquez putting the finishing touches to a record-breaking year. After taking the MotoGP title, the Repsol Honda rider claimed another victory today –with which he broke Mick Doohan’s record for wins in a single season that had stood since 1997. Teammate Dani Pedrosa was also on the podium in third, as both earned the Team World Championship honour for Repsol Honda.
When the red lights went out, Andrea Iannone and Valentino Rossi took the initiative, with Marc Marquez in third and Dani Pedrosa in fourth. Jorge Lorenzo got past Pedrosa before the end of the first lap, but the Repsol Honda regained the position on the next time around. Cal Crutchlow then relegated Pedrosa into fourth, until he again responded three laps later.
At the front, Marquez overtook Rossi on Lap 10 and Iannone on Lap 11, leaving him with a clear path to completing a memorable season with a win. Wasting no time, Pedrosa also passed Iannone and stuck on Rossi’s rear wheel, but rainfall when he was just 2 tenths of a second behind meant that he decided to settle for third.
With this result, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez end an historic campaign, in which the Repsol Honda Team took the individual, team and constructors titles.
Marc Márquez >> Audio
1st, 46:39.267
“I am so pleased, especially for my brother! It is a very happy day, even more than in Motegi when I was crowned Champion. Today Alex took the Moto3 title that he deserved, and to cap it off I was able to close the year with a victory here in Valencia. I congratulate my brother for his season, because both him and Honda have done a great job this year! Now it’s time to celebrate in the way that the occasion deserves, because it will be difficult to repeat another season like this. During today’s race I was reminded of Aragon, because it was raining and there was a moment in which I considered whether or not to change the bike. In the end we stayed calm and today we were successful with our strategy. It was an ordeal which I enjoyed but suffered a bit at times! Thanks to the whole team for all their efforts this season!”
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
3rd, 14.040 sec.
“It has not been my best season and obviously I’m not satisfied, but you have to take the positives from the situation because we learned a lot this year. Over the next few days we have some testing and we will try to get the best out of the bike for the next test, which comes in February. Today’s race was difficult. It rained a lot in some areas of the track and it was very hard to keep upright because other parts of the track it was dry. We had to take risks and also be careful at the same time. On the other hand, we finished on the podium and that’s good because we hadn’t taken points at the previous two races.”
