Marquez is Honda’s new GOAT
Marquez takes Phillip Island win to eclipse Mick Doohan as Honda’s most successful ever rider
‘It was my fault. I wasn’t going to accept second place’ MAVERICK VIÑALES
Newly-crowned six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez inflicted yet more last lap misery on Yamaha in Australia and by doing so became the most successful rider in Honda history.
Having dished out some last lap heartache to Fabio Quartararo in both Misano and Buriram, it was the turn of Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales in Phillip Island to fall short by falling off at the end of an epic battle with the Honda star. Viñales made the running for 17 of the last 18 laps until Marquez used the superior power of his RC213V on the Gardner Straight to hit the front at the start of the final lap.
The Yamaha rider’s hopes of a second successive win in Australia then vanished in a cloud of dust and gravel when he crashed with just three corners remaining while lining up a last-ditch attack. Viñales’ error left Marquez free to romp home to his fifth successive
MotoGP win and his 55th overall, making him the third most successful rider in premier class history(behind only Agostini and Rossi) and overtaking Mick Doohan as the rider with most Honda wins. The Spaniard, who also set a new lean angle record of 70.8º in an astonishing front-end save at Turn 10 in FP2, said afterwards: “The fastest rider was Maverick but sometimes the fastest doesn’t win.
I was really on the limit following him and it was difficult because in the second and third sectors he was incredibly fast. I was sliding the rear a lot more than him and just surviving but I knew if I could stay close I had a slight advantage on the straight and could use the slipstream to stay with him and pass. I just tried to close all doors and was braking so deep to keep him behind. I knew he would try at Turn 10 because he’d already passed me twice but I had no idea he crashed. If he had passed me I still think I had another chance before the line with the slipstream.” Viñales wasn’t too despondent after admitting being in win-it-orbin-it mode on the final lap.
“It was win or nothing,” the the 24-year-old said. “When I took the lead, I tried to break but kept seeing ‘★0’ to Marc, so I knew it was going to be decided on the last lap.” And he added: “When he passed me all I could think about was Turn 10. I shifted down and locked the rear. It was my fault but I wasn’t going to accept second place.”