A fourth place or higher finish in Valencia was needed by the Honda rider Marc Marquez to seal his maiden Moto GP title and this was exactly what he did to beat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo by just a small margin of four points.
There were many ups and downs throughout the season, but the debutant rider from Spain managed to hold his nerves and got rewarded at the end of the day. He faced a lot of criticism from his rivals and even his team-mate Daniel Pedrosa lashed at him for being overly aggressive at times. Despite that, the youngster was up to the challenges and showed a lot of bravery.
Right from the start of the 2013 season, one thing was pretty much clear that the real battle would be among Honda and Yamaha. Both teams had prepared really nicely and it was clear that they had an advantage over their rivals in terms of pure speed and performance.
At times, it appeared that Yamaha was superior, but the performances of Honda simply overshadowed the former team with consistency, especially during the midseason. This was where Marquez really turned things into his favor. He was not looking dominant prior to that, but things changed dramatically for him.
Four consecutive wins during the midseason for the 20-year-old made him the clear favorite for the championship. His team-mate was unable to challenge him with consistency, as he suffered a few injury problems as well.
Therefore, it appeared that it would be Marquez all the way. However, Lorenzo had different plans and he was not ready to quit that early in the championship. He was the previous year’s champion and proved that with some solid performances towards the end of 2013. He ended up securing five wins out the final seven events, which was not an easy task at all.
One advantage for the seasoned Spaniard was that his partner Valentino Rossi was off color throughout the season. There is no doubt that the latter is considered to be one of the most successful riders of all time, winning seven Moto GP championships, yet he had to settle for fourth in the recently concluded season.
Had it not been for mixed conditions, Rossi could not have even won a single race this year. He was lucky though and saved his reputation of being one of the best even at this stage. Under normal circumstances, he was simply unable to trouble his team-mate, who was extremely quick and won the most number of GPs this season. Unfortunately for him, he fell short by four points in the end.
Heading into the final round of 2013, Lorenzo needed a victory in order to ensure that he would be crowned champion, but that was not the only thing he wanted. In order for him to retain the title, he needed luck on his side too. Before the final race in Valencia, things had been working in his favor to some extent otherwise Marquez would have been champion with at least a couple of rounds to go.
However, Marquez stayed calm in his final race and did not take any risks at all despite knowing that he had the speed to finish on top of the table. He got into the lead at one stage of the race, but saw his rivals come from behind. Since he knew there was no need to do anything silly, he managed to stay out of trouble and finished the race third overall.
Earlier in the race, Lorenzo adopted a clever strategy by controlling the speed of the proceedings. He was right at the front and blocked the riders behind him in order to create some sort of pressure on his Honda rival. Although the tactics looked really good, yet they did not work out well for the Spaniard, who eventually pushed hard to create a clear gap at the front.
Pedrosa finished second on the podium with his team-mate and youngest champion to follow. Legendary rider Rossi could not do anything special and settled for fourth, where he was unchallenged by others.
Marquez can now have all of the fun he wants, but he sure needs to come out as a mature rider next year in order to continue his winning momentum and retain the title.
Right from the start of the 2013 season, one thing was pretty much clear that the real battle would be among Honda and Yamaha. Both teams had prepared really nicely and it was clear that they had an advantage over their rivals in terms of pure speed and performance.
Earlier in the race, Lorenzo adopted a clever strategy by controlling the speed of the proceedings. He was right at the front and blocked the riders behind him in order to create some sort of pressure on his Honda rival. Although the tactics looked really good, yet they did not work out well for the Spaniard, who eventually pushed hard to create a clear gap at the front.
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