2013 Moto GP - Title Bid Now Open

After the conclusion of the Malaysian GP, it appeared that the 2013 Moto GP title would go to Marc Marquez of Honda, as his rivals were way behind in the championship. The youngster was only required to finish the final three races in the top-three and that would have been enough for him to make history by becoming the youngest ever champion.

If you have not been following this year’s championship, you might be thinking that securing a place in the top-three is not an easy task at all. However, the Hondas have been the superior motorbikes this year and it is impossible for their rivals to prevent them from finishing on the podium under normal circumstances.

Looking at that, everyone expected Marquez to run away with the championship comfortably. Just like the previous rounds this year, he appeared to be strong in Australia, where the third-last race of the season was held. It was clear that he did not need to do anything special in order to finish on the podium.

However, unexpected tire wear issues during the Australian GP forced the organizers to make some changes during the race. Although this was the same for everyone, Marquez was let down by his team by simply failing to follow the rules.

Following safety concerns, the race was shortened to 19 laps and all of the riders were order to change their motorbikes on lap nine or ten. While all of the other riders followed this rule, Honda opted to keep Marquez out for yet another lap. This was a breach of the rules, thus the Spaniard was black flagged by the stewards.

As a result, the Spaniard failed to score even a single point whereas the victory went to Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, who is now just 18 points behind the leader. This would have certainly put more pressure on the debutant Honda rider and he will have to keep his cool in the remaining two rounds.

On the other hand, the reigning world champion of Yamaha will be hoping to win the final two races in order to seal another title. He does have a great chance, as he is the only one to have given a tough time to the Honda riders. However, the latter Japanese manufacturers have been way quick in terms of race pace at the moment.

Apart from the riders’ championship, the manufacturer’s battle is also on between Honda and Yamaha. Both teams have been doing a great job and are right at the top of the table with the former having an advantage of 18 points overall. 

In case Marquez makes another silly mistake or gets penalized because of his team’s actions again, things will become really interesting. However, he is still in the lead and will be confident of overcoming all of the hurdles. He will also be looking for some support from team-mate Daniel Pedrosa, who is out of the championship battle, but needs to score consistently in order to maintain Honda’s lead over Yamaha.