Marc and his team had to move on from this and he had no time to dwell on the situation. The next morning the team were on their way to Japan for the final of the three fly away races. On arrival in Japan, the typhoon in the South of Japan had begun heading north and with heavy cloud cover over the circuit, the circuit medical helicopter was unable to fly and was therefore not available in the event of an emergency, with the nearest hospital an hour away by road. This meant no track action at all, in any class, on Friday.

After an earthquake in the night, the teams arrived at the Motegi circuit on Saturday to be greeted by another obstacle. The sessions were once again cancelled, this time due to track conditions, and the entire paddock forced to wait patiently again. Finally at 12h50 race direction deemed the track safe and the Moto 3 class took to the Japanese circuit. Conditions slowly improved, although there was still a lot of standing water on track when the MotoGP class session began at 13h55. Race direction declared this session as an extended qualifying session with a time allowance of 75 minutes and Marc took second spot on the grid in preparation for the race. Sunday morning, the Sun arrived and presented everyone with the same dilemma; just 45 minutes of dry track set up time. Marc suffered a high speed crash in the session on a cold front tyre and was fortunate to avoid serious injury and received an injection before the race to numb the pain. Having only experienced 45 minutes on a dry track at Motegi on the MotoGP machine, Marc began to have some issues midway through the race. He attempted a few moves on Lorenzo but was unable to complete a pass and finally stopped pushing and settled for second place and important Championship points.

Now with just 13 points separating him and Lorenzo, the final round of the season in Valencia was to be the Championship decider. Warm weather welcomed the MotoGP teams, as did a sell out crowd at the Valencia circuit. Marc was fastest in FP1, FP2 and FP3 – breaking the pole record – and then recorded his ninth pole of the season. Marc rode a mature race, keeping out of the battle between Dani and Jorge, and took a safe third securing his first MotoGP World Championship in his maiden season.

Back-to-back Championships

It was a difficult start to 2014, after Marc broke his leg after the first Sepang test – during training. This meant he missed the second Sepang test and also Phillip Island test, and arrived in Qatar for round one with just three days on the bike. However, after slowly finding his rhythm Marc took pole in qualifying and never looked back. He won the race after an epic battle with Rossi and everyone soon forgot about his healing broken leg.

Marc led every session in Austin and true to form, won the race. He led all sessions – apart from FP1 – in Argentina and also won the race. With three in a row, Marc was on a roll. He continued his dominance to the season mid-way point, winning in Germany and then made it 10 out of 10 in Indianapolis after the Summer break. However, he couldn’t quite manage 11 out of 11 and in Brno, teammate Dani took the victory with Marc finishing in 4th.

He was back on top in Silverstone for round twelve but then came two difficult races. In San Marino, whilst chasing Rossi in the early laps, Marc made an uncharacteristic error and low-sided. He managed to get the bike restarted and displayed his grit and determination by remounting the bike and taking an all important single Championship point, in 15th. The following race in Aragón was also a test for the young Spaniard. After dominating FP3, FP4 and taking Pole Position, everything was looking positive. The race began with a fantastic battle between Marc, Dani and Jorge (Lorenzo). However, late rain arrived to spoil the show and as other riders came into the pits to change their bikes, both Marc and Dani made the choice to stay out – with just four laps remaining. Dani made a small mistake in turn one and crashed out, then unfortunately on the next lap Marc also crashed. Both riders were able to get back to the pit lane and change the bike, but with two laps remaining it was too late. Marc finished 13th and Dani 14th, taking all important Championship points.

On arrival in Japan, Marc showed no signs of pressure. With a 75 point margin his main aim was to go out and win Honda’s home GP and therefore clinch the title, however, finishing in front of Dani and losing no more than 3 points to Rossi and 15 to Lorenzo would also seal the title. It was a closely fought race and Marc battled with Rossi who would not give up the fight easily. Finally he was able to control the gap behind Lorenzo and more importantly finish in front of Rossi and Dani. His second place finish in Motegi and 20 points were enough to deliver him his second and successive MotoGP World Championship, becoming the first Honda rider to clinch a World title – in any class – at the Motegi circuit. He also became the youngest ever rider to win two consecutive premier-class World Championships at the age of 21 years 237 days, taking the record from Mike Hailwood who was 23 years 152 days when he won his second successive 500cc title in 1963.

-ends-

[mgallery keyword=”Marc Marquez”]