MARQUEZ WINS EIGHTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez is MotoGP World Champion for the sixth time. With a last lap victory at Round 15 of the 2019 FIM MotoGP World Championship at Buriram, Thailand, Marquez secured his fourth successive MotoGP title and sixth in total.

These premier class titles follow Marquez’s 125cc World Championship in 2010 and the Moto2 World Championship in 2012.

Securing the ‘8 Ball’

Unlike 2017, when the championship went down to the final round, or 2016 and 2018, when he won with three rounds in hand, Marquez secured this year’s title with four rounds remaining.

Marquez’s path to this year’s world championship – his eighth across all grand prix categories – started under a cloud as off-season shoulder surgery meant he arrived at Round 1 without his usual level of fitness or practice laps.

Second place in the season opener in Qatar was followed by either first or second placings in every race Marquez has completed, up to and including the Motegi round. The only blemish on his 2019 record at time of writing (Round 16) being a DNF at Round 3 in Texas.

Following victory at Round 14 at Aragon, Marquez had a 98-point lead over nearest rival, Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso, meant that he had his first match point at the Thai round. The simplest of the multitude of the equations that Marquez needed to wrap up the title was to win the race. Even if Dovizioso was second, the margin would be insurmountable.

The likelihood of that happening, and indeed of Marquez even racing, was thrown into doubt when he had a heavy crash in FP1 at the Thai circuit that destroyed his Repsol Honda RC213V.

Fortunately, the injuries were light and, after being declared fit to ride, Marquez went on to qualify on the front row of the grid in third place. Dovizioso, his only championship rival, qualified in seventh.

In the race, Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) was in the lead for almost the entire 26 laps, with Marquez in second. With Dovizioso behind him, this would have been enough to wrap up the championship, but Marquez made a last lap move that Quartararo couldn’t reply to, despite a desperate last corner passing attempt. The result was the race win (his ninth of the season) and the 2019 championship.

“I’m very happy. I’m so happy. When you have an advantage like I had you realise you are so close to the championship but you need to find something to keep you motivated. Today it was winning the race and it’s what I did,” Marquez said.

“It was a beautiful way to win the championship – even if I wasn’t thinking about it on the last lap! Arriving in parc ferme with the whole Repsol Honda Team there was fantastic; it’s a dream to do it with the whole fan club and the nice celebration.”

Breaking Records

Throughout the 2019 season, Marquez has been either equalling or breaking records, including being the youngest rider to reach 200 grand prix race starts (at Aragon, passing Sandro Cortese), the youngest rider to win six premier class titles (Buriram, passing Agostini), surpassing Mick Doohan’s tally of five world championships (Buriram) and equalling Doohan’s premier class race win record of 54 victories (Motegi), beating his own record of winning at least five GPs per year over ten years (Czech Republic) and taking the record off Mike Hailwood for the youngest rider to take eight world championships.

To truly appreciate Marquez’s achievements, you need to understand he’s been in the grand prix paddock for twelve years and has won world championships in eight of them – that’s two championships every three years. Following his 2010 125cc World Championship, Marquez has only failed to achieve a #1 plate on two occasions.

In securing his eighth world championship, Marquez has only a handful of riders remain ahead of him on the all-time champions list, including Valentino Rossi (9), Carlo Ubbiali (9), Mike Hailwood (9), Angel Nieto (13) and Giacomo Agostini (15).

Turning 27 next year, Marquez still has several years of racing left in him if he remains healthy and on competitive machinery, so the Rossi/Ubbiali/Hailwood records are certain to be broken, but even Marquez himself considers being able to equal or surpass Agostini’s all-time championship record would be virtually impossible.