Marc Marquez only had to stay upright in Valencia to be crowned 2017 MotoGP World Champion but incredibly he threw it all away – and then gathered it back up again – in one wild 135kph manoeuvre. Marquez is known for his brilliant saves but has never done something like that with so much at stake.
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Dovizioso and Marquez swapped positions 13 times during their battle and it all came down to a single desperate moment in the final corner. Maximum pressure. Maximum commitment. Neither rider left anything on the table.
Marc Márquez wasn’t expecting to seal the 2016 MotoGP World Championship at Motegi which might be why he didn’t have another fantastic (but utterly ridiculous) victory celebration planned. This 2014 video shows Marquez using smoke flares, a samurai, and a weather balloon to celebrate title success. Because why not.
Cal Crutchlow scored his first MotoGP victory at Brno and did so under exceptional circumstances. Cal had to fight back from 15th place on lap 3 and ended up overtaking almost the entire field in changeable conditions. That’s a great way to win any Grand Prix let alone your first! It was quite fitting that Crutchlow broke the 35-year victory drought for British riders whilst riding bike number 35.
John McPhee also took his first Grand Prix victory at Brno although he came under immense pressure at the end of the Moto3 race when he almost threw it all away. McPhee’s tyres started to give out and with just a few laps to go he had a wild highside coming out of Turn 13. Incredibly, he landed back on his bike and kept it all together to reach the finish. It was a heart-in-mouth moment that McPhee could’ve done without whilst fighting for his first win.
Marc Marquez started his Brno pole position lap right behind Valentino Rossi, and whilst he made gains in Rossi’s slipstream, he had to overtake Valentino at the end of the lap to realise the full benefit. The result was a brilliant (and aggressive) move briefly caught at 25 seconds on the highlights video below. It was pretty special to see pole position decided by a wheel-to-wheel battle in qualifying between two bitter rivals.
Aussie Jack Miller has scored his first MotoGP victory and would’ve taken extra delight at overtaking Marc Marquez for the win. In 2014, Miller was caught in a bitter Moto3 rivalry with Marc’s younger brother, Alex, and said “the Marquez family, they like to think that they are the bosses and they try to make you their, um I won’t say it, lower companion… we’ll try to take the fight to them”.
2015 was a fiery MotoGP season thanks to a bitter rivalry that escalated between Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez, and Jorge Lorenzo. This timeline illustrates how tensions increased throughout the year and might help explain the theory that what happened in November started way back in April.
Valentino Rossi shoving Marc Marquez off the road at Sepang (and picking up a penalty that might cost him the championship) will be remembered as a big episode in MotoGP history. If nothing else, it was a defining moment in the rivalry between the greatest rider of his generation and the next in line to his throne. This year Rossi is trying to cement his legacy by proving the old hen still has one more egg to lay, but he might have thrown away that chance by losing his cool against a younger version of himself. Incredible.
The 2015 Australian MotoGP race at Phillip Island was utterly thrilling all the way until the chequered flag. The race featured an epic four-way fight for victory, and this chart shows how frequently the top positions shuffled over the last eight laps.
He might be 65 points behind Valentino Rossi in the 2015 MotoGP standings but Marc Marquez can still edge himself back into championship contention.
Mathematically, Marquez would be champion if he won each remaining race and the two Yamaha riders evenly split the other podium positions between them. Although that’s not a realistic scenario, Honda is improving and that sort of result could become a trend during the second half of 2015. If Marquez returns to his winning ways, and the Yamaha riders hit trouble, he could get a sniff of a third consecutive championship.
Marquez sensationally won the MotoGP title in his rookie year. Then he broke all kinds of records by dominating the 2014 season, but an epic comeback over the next few months would be an even greater achievement. It’s hugely unlikely but don’t rule him out just yet.
