Marquez makes his Marc one more time
MOTOGP VALENCIA (ESP) 17 NOVEMBER ROUND 19/19
The final round of Motogp’s longest season ended in familiar fashion, with
Marc Marquez overcoming a challenge from 2019’s rookie sensation Fabio Quartararo to win his 12th race of his sixth title-winning campaign in the premier class.
Though the riders’ championship was sewn up in October in Thailand, and the manufacturers’ crown sealed for Honda in Japan, Marquez still had one final task: to secure the teams’ title to complete Honda’s second successive triple-crown success. Marquez has almost single-handedly carried the Repsol Honda Team this year, with team-mate Jorge Lorenzo struggling with injuries and difficulties adapting to the RC213V, and only able to score 28 points to Marquez’s 420.
The reigning champion had strong pace throughout practice, but was once more expected to come under threat from Sepang race winner Maverick
Vinales on his Yamaha, while Petronas
SRT Yamaha-riding poleman Quartararo would likely be a factor to consider.
But Vinales’s charge never materialised. The colder temperatures on Sunday at the Ricardo Tormo circuit meant he struggled for grip and “never had a chance to be fast”.
Off the line, it was third-placed Jack Miller who grabbed the holeshot on his Pramac Ducati, though Quartararo forged ahead on the way into Turn 3 just moments later. With clear air ahead, Quartararo tried to replicate Vinales’s Sepang-winning tactic by using the Yamaha’s supreme corner speed to build an advantage. Already half a second clear by the end of the first lap, it seemed to be working for him.
Marquez got hung out to dry on the outside of Turn 1 at the start and ended up in sixth as a result. He soon regrouped and took third on lap two by blasting past the dicing Suzuki of Alex Rins and Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso – a crucial move in Honda’s quest for the teams’ title.
Miller was unable to repel Marquez’s advances at Turn 14, and the Honda rider now began the hunt for Quartararo, who now led by more than seven tenths.
Marquez cut time out of Quartararo over the next three laps, meaning the SRT rider would be in the same position as at Misano and Buriram earlier in the year – leading, with Marquez piling immense pressure on the 20-year-old’s shoulders.
Marquez scythed up the inside of Quartararo at Turn 11 on the eighth tour, and unleashed the full power of the RC213V on the main straight to immediately build a gap the SRT Yamaha man could do nothing about at Turn 1. From that point, the race was done as Marquez opened his lead to well over a second. With Dovizioso fourth and team-mate Danilo Petrucci out,
Honda’s triple crown was assured.
Quartararo’s Motogp career began at Valencia 12 months ago during the post-race
test. Few would have thought he’d now be celebrating a seventh podium and heading into 2020 as a genuine title contender.
Third place for Miller marked his fifth podium of the year. With rumours swirling that he could take former teammate Petrucci’s place at Ducati’s works squad next season, he’s certainly justified himself should such a switch happen.
While Quartararo has been the golden boy of this year’s rookie crop, Joan Mir’s nine top-eight finishes – the latest of which was a seventh in Valencia ahead of Valentino Rossi – will have a few riders worried about what the Suzuki man will be capable of next season. Chief among them will be team-mate Rins, whose fifth at Valencia wasn’t enough to secure third in the standings, that honour going to Vinales.
Johann Zarco’s final race for LCR Honda ended horribly. After crashing out at Turn 6 late on – which Petrucci had also done seconds before – Zarco was wiped out by the errant KTM of Tech3 debutant
Iker Lecuona (replacing the injured
Miguel Oliveira), who suffered a similar tumble. Mercifully, the Frenchman came away mostly unscathed.
The chaos allowed Lorenzo to take 13th on the works Honda. It was a muted end to a spectacular career, which he had announced he’d be concluding at Valencia. The difficult RC213V and numerous injuries ground away his confidence and motivation to the point where continuing was a needless risk. Five times a world champion and winner of 68 grands prix across all classes, Lorenzo may have been denied the chance to go out on the high a career like that deserves, but he retires as one of the greatest riders Motogp has ever seen.
LEWIS DUNCAN