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Tag: Marc Marquez
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Marquez goes into seventh heaven at Sachsenring: A Michelin view
Sachsenring, 17 July 2016: Michelin saw its tyre range used to the full extent today at Sachsenring in Germany during the GoPro Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland as changing conditions produced an exciting race that was won by Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) after an inspired and brave pit-stop.
Heavy rain early this morning meant all riders started today’s 30-lap flag-to-flag MotoGP™ race with the latest MICHELIN Power Rain tyres. These two new compounds had been developed and produced after the last race at Assen, with originally a soft version being made available in this weekend’s allocation. When it was a likely situation with the weather forecast that it would be cold and wet on race-day, Michelin took the decision to bring the super-soft tyre from the factory in readiness for today. It arrived overnight and the riders were able to use it in this morning’s wet warm-up session to assess its abilities. When the race started, 16 bikes were fitted with the tyre that arrived today, with the other six on the soft version.
As the lights changed to signal the start, Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) made the hole-shot and led for the first two-laps before being passed by Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team), who was subsequently overtaken by Danilo Petrucci (OCTO
ANDREA DOVIZIOSO ITA
DUCATI RACING TEAM
DUCATI
MotoGP
GP Deutschland 2016 (Circuit Sachsenring)
15-17/07.2016
photo: MICHELINPramac Yakhnich). Petrucci held first place for seven-laps before crashing out unhurt on lap-11 and Dovizioso inherited the lead on what was now a fast-drying track. A tremendous battle both with the elements and each other ensued, before riders started to come into the pits to change to their other bikes, which had tyres more suited to the track conditions. Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team) became the first rider to use MICHELIN Power Inters in a competitive situation and Marquez took a courageous, but ultimately calculated gamble to change to MICHELIN Power Slicks on what was still quite a damp track outside of the full dry line which had appeared. The decision was inspired and the Spaniard carved his way through the field to take a stunning victory, his seventh successive race win at Sachsenring across all classes.
The race for the other podium places certainly began to heat up after the bike swaps and the crowd of 93,213 were treated to great battles all the way through the field. Cal Crutchlow – also on slicks – (LCR Honda) produced a fantastic ride to take second place, along with the position of First Independent Team Rider. Dovizioso took third with a front inter and rear slick, as he just edged out Scott Redding (OCTO Pramac Yakhnich) on the line, after the Englishman had changed to inters. Iannone was fifth, followed home by Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) using slicks in sixth, with Assen winner Jack Miller (Estrella Galicia 0.0 Marc VDS) swapping to slicks to take seventh. Rossi crossed the line eighth on inters, with the top-ten being rounded out by the Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing) using an inter front and a slick rear in ninth and Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) on inters in tenth. This spread of different tyre choices shows the wide-ranging way the Michelin rubber performed during the race.
MotoGP now takes a short summer break when Michelin will assess the data and performances from the first half of the season, before the paddock re-convenes for the next race of 2016, which will be at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on Sunday 14th August.
Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team:
“Today was certainly a good race to test the tyres! We started with the wets and after the experience in Assen, Michelin has improved the front tyre and it was working very well. I chose the extra soft at the start and it was probably too soft for these conditions, but that was my mistake to choose it. This was the first flag-to-flag race in these conditions – where we started in the wet and it dries. I was a little bit scared when I changed the bike, because to be on the slicks on the wet parts is really dangerous. It was an option to use intermediates, but for me it is better to go directly to a slick and I chose the best strategy. During all weekend I have felt good and it was great to finish with 25-points.”
Nicolas Goubert – Deputy Director, Technical Director and Supervisor of the MotoGP Programme:
“Firstly I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Michelin MotoGP team to express my deepest sympathies and condolences to the people of Nice after the tragedy there this week. We are a French company so have been deeply upset by what happened and were very moved by the minute’s silence that was observed by the Grand Prix family at Sachsenring today.
“As for the race I don’t know where to start. For us the weekend has been very challenging due to the extreme weather conditions, from a very cold track on Friday, to warm and bright sunshine yesterday and then heavy rain and changeable conditions today, we have had to cope with everything and we are very pleased with the results from all of our tyres. We saw the weather forecast for the weekend on Thursday and took the decision to ship in an even softer front wet than we had in the original allocation and that worked very well in the first part of the race. The riders then made different choices as they swapped bikes and we saw the Inters used for the first time in a race, so this will give use some valuable data. Marc’s decision to go to slicks was a very brave one and as we saw it was correct for him to do it. His ride in those conditions was one of the best I have seen. We will now re-group during the break and assess the direction in which we are going and how the tyres are working, so that we can continue to supply the best options for all conditions and all riders.”
eom/Michellin press release
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Marquez takes pole; Rossi on P5
Catalunya, 4 June 2016: Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has scored the 61st pole of his career for tomorrow’s Catalan GP, with teammate Dani Pedrosa on the front row for the first time of the season. Team Movistar Yamaha’s reigning world champion Lorenzo will start from P2 while his teammate and former multiple world champion Valentino Rossi will start on P5 from the second row.
Marc and Dani started the day well – despite a small crash for the former at turn 2 on his favourite bike – posting the second and third fastest times in an FP3 session that was extended to 60 minutes to allow the riders to learn the revised circuit layout, introduced after Luis Salom’s tragic incident yesterday.
After working hard on the setup in yesterday’s free practices Marc and his crew decided to introduce some important modifications to the bike settings for today, which allowed him to improve significantly his feeling on the bike. Marc continued his progress into FP4 and qualifying, recording the fastest time in both sessions.
Dani, who has worked with one of his bike on a new chassis over the last two days and decided to use it on tomorrow’s race, snatched the third spot on the front row after devoting FP4 to finalizing the setup of his RC213V.
Marquez said: “We’ve worked well, and this morning we had a good feeling, but that fact was covered up because my crash was on the bike that I liked more. I felt very comfortable in FP4, with a good pace when using race tyres. We did a very good job and everything together meant that things worked out well. I’m very happy with the pole position, but we’re already thinking about the race. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but I want to dedicate this pole to my grandmother who passed away two weeks ago and to Luis Salom.”
From Yamaha:
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s Jorge Lorenzo continued his strong results from yesterday in a challenging second day at the Circuito de Barcelona-Catalunya, taking second on the grid for tomorrow‘s Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya. The reigning World Champion and his teammate Valentino Rossi only had two sessions before the 15-minute qualifying heat to get used to a track revision following yesterday‘s tragic incident involving Luis Salom. After the Doctor changed his setting to suit the new fourth sector he recorded the fifth best time at the very end of the Q2 session.
Intending to hit a clear track, Lorenzo was one of the last riders to leave the pits in Q2, allowing the pack to move ahead. With his first flying lap, a 1‘44.452s, he shot straight into second place. He continued to push hard but was unable to improve his time on his first tyre and returned to the pits with six minutes left.
Two minutes later he was back on track, ready to attack again. The local hero bettered his time but not his placement with his third attempt, a 1‘44.056s lap. Despite a strong fast sector from Lorenzo on his final lap he was unable to snatch pole and took secondon the grid, 0.467s off the front.
Rossi kept the tension high to the last moments of the qualifying heat. Leaving the pits late like his teammate, he took third on his first flying lap with a 1‘45.315s. Having been pushed back to sixth, he put the hammer down and was promoted to fifth on his second hot lap with a 1‘45.138s before entering pit lane with six and a half minutes remaining.
Returning to the track with just over four minutes on the clock offered him another chance to step up to the challenge. As the pace quickened towards the end of the session, the nine-time World Champion moved five places up the timesheets as the flag went out with a 1‘44.324s, to take fifth for a second row start, 0.735s from pole.
eom/press briefs from Honda and Yamaha
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Marquez continues American domination, wins round 10 at Indy; Lorenzo 2nd, Rossi 3rd
Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez won today’s Indianapolis Grand Prix from pole position after an exciting battle with Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo. The result was the reigning MotoGP™ World Champion’s seventh successive premier-class victory on American soil.Marquez started from pole position but found himself in second place on the opening lap as Lorenzo produced one of his trademark storming starts to take the early lead. The two riders held their own private dogfight at the front of the field for the whole race, with Marquez ultimately fighting his way into the lead with just two laps remaining. Once in the lead, Marquez increased his pace to take the chequered flag 0.688 seconds ahead of Lorenzo in second place. Finishing in third place was Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi who came out on top of another intense battle with Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa for the final podium place. During his fierce battle with Lorenzo, Marquez was able to set a new Indianapolis Circuit Record Lap of 1’32.625 on the twenty-third lap of the race and his total finish time of 41’55.371 was twelve seconds quicker than the old overall race time record that he set last year.After fine and hot weather all weekend, race day brought a change in conditions with intermittent rain falling throughout the day. The MotoGP race was declared dry, yet very light drizzle fell on parts of the track in the second half of the race, making the record pace set by the riders even more impressive. The peak track temperature of 38° C was eleven degrees cooler than yesterday’s highest reading. Despite the cooler track temperature and the threat of rain, tyre choice was a carbon copy of what riders used in race simulations yesterday. Twenty-one of the twenty-three riders selected the hard compound front slick, with only two riders selecting the medium compound front. Rear tyre choice saw all factory option Honda and Yamaha riders select the hard compound rear, all factory option Ducati and Suzuki riders on the medium rear, while the Aprilia and open class riders opted for the soft compound rear slick.Marquez’s third victory of the year sees him jump into third place in the championship standings on 139 points. Rossi still leads the MotoGP points table on 195 points, although the lead over his teammate Lorenzo shrinks to nine points with eight rounds remaining.Marc Marquez said: “The race went very well, but we were pretty much on the limit. The truth is that Jorge improved a lot during the race, and I didn’t think there would be so many laps in the 1’32s. Even towards the end of the race we did a 1’32.6, which is very fast! We used the strategy of attacking at the end, when there were three laps remaining, and I think it was ideal for taking victory at this circuit. I’m also very proud to have taken Honda’s 700th victory! This is a very special moment for all the team and I dedicate it to all of Honda.”Indianapolis MotoGP™ Top Ten Race ClassificationPosRiderTeamRace TimeGapFront specRear specTyres1Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 41’55.371 Hard Hard Bridgestone2Jorge LORENZO Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 41’56.059 0.688 Hard Hard Bridgestone3Valentino ROSSI Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 42’01.337 5.966 Hard Hard Bridgestone4Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 42’01.518 6.147 Hard Hard Bridgestone5Andrea IANNONE Ducati Team 42’16.899 21.528 Hard Medium Bridgestone6Bradley SMITH Monster Yamaha Tech 3 42’17.122 21.751 Hard Hard Bridgestone7Pol ESPARGARO Monster Yamaha Tech 3 42’25.749 30.378 Hard Hard Bridgestone8Cal CRUTCHLOW CWM LCR Honda 42’26.978 31.607 Hard Hard Bridgestone9Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team 42’28.192 32.821 Hard Medium Bridgestone10Danilo PETRUCCI Octo Pramac Racing 42’29.888 34.517 Hard Medium Bridgestoneends/Bridgestone press release -
Honda Achieves 700th FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix Victory
INDIANAPOLIS, USA, August 9, 2015 – Honda MotoGP rider Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team RC213V) claimed victory in the MotoGP class, in Round 10 of the 2015 FIM Road Racing World Championship held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana, USA. Beginning with its first world grand prix race in 1961, at the hands of Australian rider Tom Phillis on his Honda RC143 in the 125cc class of the season-opening Spanish Grand Prix, Honda has now achieved an unprecedented 700* grand prix wins.
By the beginning of the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Honda had tallied 698 grand prix wins. The Moto3 class started under light rain, with most top riders choosing wet tires. 18 year old Belgian rider Livio Loi (RW Racing GP Honda NSF250RW) had taken a gamble to start on slicks, which paid off as the wet tire riders inevitably pitted, allowing Loi to claim his first victory after a consistent ride, taking Honda one step closer to the 700 win milestone.
Uncertain weather conditions persisted in the MotoGP class which followed, with light rain in the latter stages of the premier class race. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team RC213V) maintained a close gap with the race leader throughout the race, and with three laps remaining on lap 25, took the lead for a runaway victory, giving him his second consecutive win (third for the season), and Honda its 700th grand prix victory.
In 1954, Honda’s founder Soichiro Honda declared entry into the premier motor sports event of the time, the Isle of Man TT, aiming to “realize the dream of becoming the world’s best.” After five years developing a racing machine, Honda became the first Japanese motorcycle manufacturer to enter the Isle of Man TT race. The following year, in 1960, Honda began competing in the 125cc and 250cc classes of the FIM Road Racing World Championship, and in 1961, Tom Phillis won the season-opening Spanish Grand Prix, giving Honda its first step towards its 700 victories.
Honda then forayed into the 350cc and 50cc classes in 1962, and the 500cc class in 1966, and won the championship in all five classes in 1966. At the time, Honda considered its racing activities to be a “laboratory on wheels,” and new technologies developed to win world championship races were applied to its production motorcycles. With dramatically improved quality, the market had expanded its support for Honda’s motorcycles. At the end of the 1967 season, Honda had paused its factory racing activities, which were to be restarted 11 years later, with 138 grand prix wins.
In 1979, Honda returned to FIM Road Racing World Championship racing in the 500cc class. Three years later in 1982, American rider Freddie Spencer won Round 7 in Belgium on his Honda NS500, giving Honda its first victory since returning to world grand prix racing. Honda then went on to win grand prix races in the 125cc and 250cc classes, contributing to its 500th victory in 2001, when Italian rider Valentino Rossi was victorious in the 500cc class at the season-opening Japan Grand Prix. In 2005, Spaniard Dani Pedrosa rode his Honda RS250RW to victory in the 250cc class in Round 15 in Australia, marking Honda’s 600th grand prix win.
* Number of wins counted by Honda based on FIM records Moto2 class wins since 2010 are not included, as the entire class is raced with Honda engines Moto3 class wins in 2012 are not included as Honda wins, in compliance with FIM regulations, as the registered constructor was FTR Honda (albeit powered by the NSF250R engine)
Honda takes 700th MotoGP win as Marquez edged out Yamaha duo to victory at Indaianapolis on Sunday. A Repsol Honda image -
Marquez takes pole ahead of teammate Pedrosa at Indianapolis GP
Indianapolis, 8 August 2015: Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa have completed a faultless day placing first and second for tomorrow’s 27 lap race, the first qualifying 1-2 since the GP of Malaysia in 2014.
Both riders were immediately fast with Marc posting his best time on his first exit, with a time of 1’31.884 and was unable to better this on his second run. Dani went straight to second place on his first run then improved h
Marc-Marquez of RepsolHondatakes pole at Indianapolis-MotoGP on 8 Aug 2015 Bridgestone pic is time on his second exit closing in on Marc’s time and finishing just 0.171 seconds off his teammate with a time of 1’32.055.
Marc has started from pole in every race on American soil in the MotoGP class except Laguna Seca in 2013, making it six from seven and tomorrow he will be aiming for his fifth consecutive win at the Brickyard.
The race will begin at 14h00 local time; Ten Sports is expected to telecast the GP live from 11.30 pm in India. The Moto 3 race where Indian team Mahindara is taking part will be telecast from 10.30 pm IST
Bridgestone report on qualification: Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez is ideally placed to claim a hat-trick of Indianapolis Grand Prix victories as he secured pole position in qualifying on Saturday ahead of his teammate Dani Pedrosa.
Marquez was the only rider able to set a time in the 1’31 bracket and his time of 1’31.884 was just two-tenths off his own Indianapolis Circuit Best Lap record – an impressive feat given track temperatures in qualifying this year were around 10°C higher than last year. Pedrosa’s personal best time of 1’32.055 was good enough for second place on the grid ahead of Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo, who clocked a 1’32.186 on his final lap in Qualifying Practice 2 to secure the final front row position. All of the top three riders in qualifying used the combination of the medium compound rear and hard compound front slick during their time attack in QP2.It was another warm day in Indianapolis but despite high ambient temperatures, the cloud cover meant that track temperatures didn’t reach the levels seen yesterday, with a peak reading of 49°C recorded this afternoon. After being given a positive reception by riders yesterday, the hard compound front slick was the most popular option in today’s sessions; during both long runs and in time attack situations in qualifying. It is expected the majority of riders will select this option for the race, although the medium compound front slick is likely to be selected by some riders. Rear slick choice today was more varied with all three options in the allocation being used. For the factory Honda and Yamaha riders the hard compound rear slick is by far the most popular option, while the medium rear slick was favoured by the Ducati riders. The soft compound rear slick could also feature in the race as it is likely to be selected by the majority of open class, Aprilia and Suzuki riders.The weather forecast suggests a fair chance of afternoon thunderstorms tomorrow, so wet or dry conditions could greet riders for tomorrow’s race at 1400 local time (GMT–4). Before then, the morning Warm UP session at 0940 will provide a final opportunity for the riders and teams to confirm their tyre choice and bike setting for the race.Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department“We had warm, dry conditions throughout the day so there was plenty of opportunity for the riders to confirm which tyre combination they preferred. The hard front, hard rear combination is working really well for the factory Honda and Yamaha riders as it combines excellent braking stability with strong, consistent drive grip at the rear. The hard compound front slick is also popular with the other factory machines and open class riders and I expect that we will see the soft and medium compound rear slicks on the grid for tomorrow’s race as well. There is a chance of rain for tomorrow’s race and although the riders haven’t been able to try this new Indianapolis tarmac in wet conditions, we have two compound options of wet tyres available so no matter what the conditions are, we have enough options for the riders.”Indianapolis MotoGP QP2 times – Riders that qualified from QP1 shaded in grayPos Rider Team QP2 Time Gap 1Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 1’31.884 2Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1’32.055 0.171 3Jorge LORENZO Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1’32.186 0.302 4Cal CRUTCHLOW CWM LCR Honda 1’32.208 0.324 5Danilo PETRUCCI Octo Pramac Racing 1’32.243 0.359 6Bradley SMITH Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’32.269 0.385 7Andrea IANNONE Ducati Team 1’32.468 0.584 8Valentino ROSSI Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1’32.511 0.627 9Maverick VIÑALES Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1’32.571 0.687 10Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team 1’32.636 0.752 11Pol ESPARGARO Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’32.670 0.786 12Aleix ESPARGARO Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1’32.814 0.930 -
Marquez continues perfect record in USA with emphatic win in Austin
Austin, 12 April 2015 (13Apr IST): Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has returned to winning form in the Red Bull GP of The Americas with teammate Hiroshi Aoyama – replacing Dani Pedrosa – fighting to the last lap to take 11th place.
Pole man Marc dropped back briefly from the start to 2nd place behind Dovizioso whilst Hiroshi got caught up and found himself 20th, from 16th on the grid. By lap five, Hiro had climbed to 13th and after a brief battle with Dovizioso, Marc took first place.
With Rossi and Iannone fighting with Dovizioso, Marc never looked back and led from the front for the remainder of the race – taking his 20th victory in the MotoGP class. Hiroshi progressed further and reached 11th place, which he briefly lost on the final lap, but showed a fighting spirit and re-passed Barbera taking 11th.
Marc has won on all six occasions that he has raced in the MotoGP class in the USA, and Honda celebrate their 11th consecutive win on American soil. The last non-Honda MotoGP winner in the USA was Jorge Lorenzo, at Laguna Seca in 2010.
Now the team packs up and head straight to Argentina for the third round of 2015.
Marc Marquez said: “I am very happy with this victory! After yesterday, things looked positive for us, but the only doubt was about the weather. In the end, it turned out stranger than it had seemed. When I saw that it was going to be a dry race, I started out very focused – because I knew it was important to try to win today. However, right from the first lap I saw that the track was not like it had been before the rain of last night. There was less grip and it was harder to ride comfortably. I decided to keep calm in the early laps to try to understand the situation well, and when I started to find a feeling similar to practice, I decided to push the pace a bit. That was when I was able to open up a gap.”
Results Session
Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Time/Gap 1 MARQUEZ Marc 93 SPA 25 Repsol Honda Team 43’47.150 2 DOVIZIOSO Andrea 4 ITA 20 Ducati Team +2.354 3 ROSSI Valentino 46 ITA 16 Movistar Yamaha MotoGP +3.120 4 LORENZO Jorge 99 SPA 13 Movistar Yamaha MotoGP +6.682 5 IANNONE Andrea 29 ITA 11 Ducati Team +7.584 6 SMITH Bradley 38 GBR 10 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +10.557 7 CRUTCHLOW Cal 35 GBR 9 CWM LCR Honda +16.967 8 ESPARGARO Aleix 41 SPA 8 Team Suzuki Ecstar +19.025 9 VINALES Maverick 25 SPA 7 Team Suzuki Ecstar +38.570 10 PETRUCCI Danilo 9 ITA 6 Pramac Racing +41.796 11 AOYAMA Hiroshi 7 JPN 5 Repsol Honda Team +47.199 12 BARBERA Hector 8 SPA 4 Avintia Racing +47.339 13 HAYDEN Nicky 69 USA 3 Aspar MotoGP Team +56.484 14 MILLER Jack 43 AUS 2 CWM LCR Honda +56.731 15 BAUTISTA Alvaro 19 SPA 1 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini +57.372 16 LAVERTY Eugene 50 IRE 0 Aspar MotoGP Team +58.898 17 BAZ Loris 76 FRA 0 Athina Forward Racing +1’08.787 18 DE ANGELIS Alex 15 RSM 0 Athina Forward Racing +1’22.236 19 ABRAHAM Karel 17 CZE 0 AB Motoracing DNF 20 MELANDRI Marco 33 ITA 0 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini DNF 21 HERNANDEZ Yonny 68 COL 0 Pramac Racing DNF 22 DI MEGLIO Mike 63 FRA 0 Avintia Racing DNF 23 REDDING Scott 45 GBR 0 Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS DNF 24 BRADL Stefan 6 GER 0 Athina Forward Racing DNF 25 ESPARGARO Pol 44 SPA 0 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 DNF eom/Honda press release
Reigning world champion Marquez returns to winning ways in Austin on Sunday. A Repsol Honda image -
Anticipation is over as 2015 season sets to kick off in Qatar: MotoGP Honda news
Last week’s Qatar test signalled an end to Winter testing and the Repsol Honda Team are en route back to the desert for the first round of the season.
It’s been a positive testing period for reigning World Champion, Marc Marquez, and his teammate Dani Pedrosa. After a challenging test in Valencia at the end of 2014, the Honda Racing Corporation engineers returned to Japan and worked hard all winter, in order to arrive at the first test in Malaysia with additional chassis’ for both riders to try. Since then, progress has been steady as both Marc and Dani fine tuned their Honda RC213V machines in preparation for this first round.Marc, who took his first MotoGP podium here in 2013, will be relieved to be arriving 100% fit after last year when he was still recovering from a broken leg, suffered during a training accident. Marc took his first win here and then continued his famous 10-race winning streak that eventually set him up for back-to-back World Championships. Marc has visited the Qatar podium in all three classes, MotoGP – 1st in 2014 and 3rd in 2013, Moto2 – 1st in 2012 and 125cc – 3rd in 2010. Dani, has also had a positive pre-season and has enjoyed a total of six podium finishes in Qatar, but victory at this track still eludes him. Dani has celebrated four 3rd place finishes (2014, 2011, 2008 and 2007) and one 2nd place (2012) in the MotoGP class, and one 2nd place in 250cc (2004).
The Losail Circuit is a flowing layout of 5.4 kilometres, surrounded by artificial grass designed to prevent sand from the neighbouring desert from blowing onto the circuit. The main straight is over a kilometre in length and there is a good mix of medium and high-speed corners, including a couple of quick left-handers which has proved particularly popular with the riders. In 2008, it became notable for hosting the first-ever floodlit MotoGP race.
This first grand prix of the season is also the only race weekend that stretches over four days, with FP1 beginning on Thursday evening, FP2 and FP3 on Friday evening, Qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday night at 22h00 local time.
Quotes: Marc Marquez
“I can’t wait for the season to begin! It’s been a long Winter and then testing was cut short in Qatar last week due to rain, which was very strange, but I’m confident going into this first race. This circuit isn’t one of my favourites but it’s still fun to ride and it marks the beginning of the Championship which is great. Let’s see how the conditions are after all the rain last week. As usual it will take a few sessions of the different classes on track to clear the racing line and then we will see how the grip level is. There are a lot of fast riders on fast bikes – as we saw during testing – so this first race weekend will be interesting for sure!”
Marc Marquez Statistics
Date of Birth 17/02/1993 Birthplace Lleida, (Catalonia) – Spain Height 168 cm Weight 59 kg Hobbies Mountain Biking, Video games Racing Number 93 First Race 1998 “Enduro per nens” Grand Prix Debut 2008 125cc Portugal GP (KTM 125 FRR) GPs raced 114 GP pole positions 50 (14 in 125cc, 14 in 250cc, 22 in MotoGP) Total GP podiums 69 (14 x 125cc, 25 x Moto2, 30 x MotoGP) Total GP wins 45 (10 x 125cc, 16 x Moto2, 19 x MotoGP) First GP Win 2010 125cc Italian GP (Derbi RSA 125) World titles 4 (1 x 125cc – 2010, 1 x Moto2 – 2012, 2 x MotoGP – 2013, 2014) Previous results in Qatar 2014 1st (MotoGP), 2013 3rd (MotoGP), 2012 1st (Moto2), 2011 DNF (Moto2), 2010 3rd (125cc), 2009 DNF (Moto2) Built in little over a year, the Losail International Circuit track cost $58 million USD. File photo courtesy Repsol Honda team. -
Marquez sets quickest ever lap at Sepang to top first official Moto GP test
Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft & Hard. Rear: Soft(Symmetric), Medium (Asymmetric) and Hard (Symmetric)Bridgestone wet tyre compounds available: HardWeather: Dry. Ambient 29-32°C; Track 34-53°C (Bridgestone measurement)Sepang, 6 Feb 2015: Current World Champion Marc Marquez emphatically underlined his title credentials for the upcoming season by setting a scorching time of 1’58.867 at the first MotoGP™ group test of 2015 at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit.According to a Bridgestone Press Release here on Friday, in cool conditions on the morning of the final day, Repsol Honda’s Marquez was the first ever rider to lap the Sepang circuit in the 1’58 bracket to ultimately set a time 0.139 seconds quicker than his teammate Dani Pedrosa, who was second quickest in Malaysia. Third quickest overall was Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone, with the Italian rider relishing his graduation to the factory Ducati team with lap time of 1’59.388, over 1.3 seconds quicker than his best time in last year’s opening group test.Thirty riders – including a total of five test riders from Aprilia, Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha – took part in the first group test of 2015, completing a total of 4429 laps (24,550 kilometres) on Bridgestone tyres. The gap in lap time from the quickest to slowest rider at the first Sepang test was 7.323 seconds.Fine and dry conditions presented themselves during the three days of the test, with a peak track temperature of 53°C recorded on the afternoon of the second day. Track conditions were usual for Sepang, with only moderate grip levels and certain sections of the circuit being quite bumpy, but the combination of fine weather, the latest MotoGP machinery and Bridgestone’s 2015 specification tyres resulted in the test being run at record pace. The slightly cooler conditions on the morning of the final day allowed the riders to extract maximum performance from their tyres, with the top seven riders on the timesheets able to set times in the 1’59 bracket.All front and rear slick compound choices were utilised by riders over the three days and Bridgestone will now analyse the data acquired to incorporate into their tyre development programme for the 2015 season. Bridgestone will be back in Sepang for the second MotoGP™ official test which will take place from February 23-25.Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department“This was a successful first group test and I am happy with the feedback we received from the riders on our 2015 specification tyres. Our technical objectives for this test were to give the riders some newly developed tyres based on our learnings from last year, while also ensuring that we provided a softer rear tyre allocation to cope with the increased performance of the current Open-class machines. I am happy to say that we achieved all our objectives, and despite track conditions not being ideal, the pace set over the three days was very impressive. We now look forward to continuing our good work at Sepang in a few weeks’ time.”Sepang I MotoGP™ Group Test – combined lap timesPos Rider Team Fastest lap Gap Total laps 1Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 1’58.867 1812Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1’59.006 0.139 1383Andrea IANNONE Ducati Team 1’59.388 0.521 1604Valentino ROSSI Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1’59.401 0.534 1695Jorge LORENZO Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1’59.624 0.757 1666Pol ESPARGARO Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’59.851 0.984 1627Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team 1’59.874 1.007 1288Stefan BRADL Forward Racing Team 2’00.294 1.427 1569Bradley SMITH Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2’00.384 1.517 15310Aleix ESPARGARO Team Suzuki MotoGP 2’00.486 1.619 13711Cal CRUTCHLOW CWM LCR Honda 2’00.536 1.669 19012Maverick VIÑALES Team Suzuki MotoGP 2’00.964 2.097 17613Danilo PETRUCCI Pramac Racing 2’00.970 2.103 15314Hiroshi AOYAMA HRC 2’01.029 2.162 17615Hector BARBERA Avintia Racing 2’01.183 2.316 15416Michele PIRRO Pramac Racing 2’01.232 2.365 15017Scott REDDING Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS 2’01.263 2.396 18218Nicky HAYDEN Drive M7 Aspar 2’01.508 2.641 14419Loris BAZ Forward Racing Team 2’01.624 2.757 15620Jack MILLER CWM LCR Honda 2’01.895 3.028 16621Alvaro BAUTISTA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 2’01.924 3.057 15722Mike DI MEGLIO Avintia Racing 2’02.128 3.261 14923Karel ABRAHAM AB Motoracing 2’02.297 3.43 14024Eugene LAVERTY Drive M7 Aspar 2’02.334 3.467 14925Katsuyuki NAKASUGA Yamaha Factory Test Team 2’02.363 3.496 10926Takumi TAKAHASHI HRC 2’03.113 4.246 20127Alex DE ANGELIS Octo Ioda Racing Team 2’03.399 4.532 12528Marco MELANDRI Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 2’03.641 4.774 15629Takuya TSUDA Team Suzuki MotoGP 2’05.478 6.611 1830Michael LAVERTY Aprilia Test Team 2’06.190 7.323 28eom/david/Bridgestone release
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Marquez takes 12th win of 2014 with victory in Malaysia sealing Constructor’s Title for Honda
Today in Malaysia, 2014 World Champion Marc Marquez has won his 12th race of the 2014 season and secured Honda’s fourth consecutive Constructors Title. Teammate Dani Pedrosa was in contention for a strong finish today but unfortunately crashed out of the race. Dani, starting from 2nd on the grid, leap frogged teammate Marc from the start and led the race entering turn one as Marc had a brief encounter with Lorenzo and briefly dropping down to 8th. As the riders crossed the line at the end of the first lap, Lorenzo had taken the lead from Dani and Marc was already up to 6th. On lap two, Marc continued to storm through the field – setting a new record race lap (2’01.150) – and passing Bradl and Dovizioso to move up to 4th, then in the final corner Dani made a small mistake and lost the front, crashing out at a fairly low speed. He was able to remount the bike and rejoined the race in 20th.
Marc now in third began to chase down race leaders Lorenzo and Rossi as Dani instigated his comeback. On lap ten, Marc passed Lorenzo – who had lost the lead to his teammate – and on the final corner Rossi ran slightly wide and Marc was able to pass. Meanwhile Dani had moved up to 11th place but on lap thirteen he lost the front in turn nine and this time was unable to restart. Marc and Rossi put on a good show for the final eight laps but with two laps to go, Marc opened up the throttle and put a three second gap between him and Rossi.
This win in Sepang is Marc’s 12th victory of the season, equalling Repsol Honda’s Mick Doohan’s 1997 record for most wins in a single season in the premier class of racing, and has gifted Honda their 21st premier-class Constructors’ title.
Marquez said:
Marquez poses with the team after 12th win of the 2014 season at Sepang on Sunday. A Repsol Honda pic “This was one of the toughest races of the year for me physically and I’m happy to have equalled Mick Doohan’s record! We knew to expect this kind of weather in Malaysia but it was especially hot today and we all found it hard to finish the race. Halfway into the race the pace slowed down because I think everybody needed to take a breath! I’m happy with how I handled the race, because the first corner was a bit of a nightmare but I was able to come back to the front and stay there, whilst I cooled down my tyres and brakes. I started to attack with 10 laps remaining, then made the difference when there were 5 laps to go.” eom/Repsol Honda release
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11th win for Marquez at Silverstone, equals Rossi record with win
11th Win for Marquez at Silverstone this season. A Repsol Honda image 31 August 2014: Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez was back on the top step of the podium today, after an intense encounter with Jorge Lorenzo, and became the first rider since Valentino Rossi in 2005 to win 11 MotoGP races in a single season. Teammate Dani Pedrosa enjoyed a tight battle with Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso and took a well earned 4th place, just 0.175 seconds off the podium.Both Marc and Dani dropped a position from the start, Marc down to 2nd behind Jorge and Dani down to 6th. Whilst Marc tracked the race leader, Dani picked off his opponents and by lap nine he was up to third behind the two front runners. However, on lap thirteen Valentino and Andrea fought back and Dani was relegated back to 5th. Meanwhile on lap fourteen Marc passed Jorge, but after a small mistake on lap sixteen Jorge re-took the lead. An epic battle ensued on the final two laps with the riders touching briefly before Marc was able to make the pass stick, and Dani managed to overtake Andrea for 4th, finishing just behind Valentino. Marc now leads the Rider’s Championship by 89 points (288), with teammate Dani in second (199) and Rossi third (189). Honda have an 86 point lead in the Constructor’s Championship and the Repsol Honda Team enjoy a 141 point lead in the Team’s Championship.
The MotoGP paddock will now have a two week break before returning for round thirteen in San Marino.
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