Reigning Champion Marc Marquez battled with Rossi to a brilliant victory in Qatar, giving Honda their 250th win in the premier class. Dani Pedrosa joined his team mate on the third step of the podium.
In a stunning start of the MotoGP 2014 season, the reigning World Champion returned to wow his fans at the helm of his Honda to take the 250th victory for the brand in the premier class. Neither his injury of six weeks ago that forced Marquez to miss lost two-thirds of the preseason, nor strong rides by Valentino Rossi –who finished second– and team mate Dani Pedrosa –third– held the young star back from a magnificent ride to victory at the inaugural race of the season.
The race began with Jorge Lorenzo starting strong to take the lead in the first corner. But the Spaniard fell in turn 15 before the end of the first lap, as did Stefan Bradl, who also started well, on lap 9. That left Marquez in the lead followed by Rossi and Pedrosa, with Alvaro Bautista close behind.
The race came down to the final lap, with 21 year old Marquez battling with veteran Rossi for the first victory of the year with Marquez coming out on top. In the battle for third, Pedrosa took advantage of a crash suffered by Bautista to take the final podium position.
On the heels of this victory, Marquez will head to Austin in less than three weeks, the site of his first victory in the MotoGP class.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
1st – 42:40.561
“I’m very happy with the result today. The 25 points are important but it’s also been an important race, because I was coming back from an injury that caused me to miss most of the pre-season. Also, this weekend there were a lot of riders up at the front, all with a great pace, and seeing how the race went, this win is a big one. The battle with Valentino was the best part of the race besides the win, I really enjoyed it!”
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
3rd at 3.370 sec.
“Third place is a positive result. We’ve finished on the podium this weekend at a circuit that’s difficult for me, because it isn’t well suited to my style. So it’s a good way to start. We were close, but with the way the race went -with so many crashes- it was important to finish. So from here on in we will try to keep improving and try to fight for the win at the next race!”
