"Menebrio" (menebrio)
06/16/2014 at 17:44 • Filed to: MotoGP, Marc Marquez, Two wheels good, Honda, Yamaha
4
0|
"Menebrio" (menebrio)
06/16/2014 at 17:44 • Filed to: MotoGP, Marc Marquez, Two wheels good, Honda, Yamaha | 4
| 0 |
Lets start by recapping the MotoGP season thus far. Marquez came out victorious in the first race, again in the second race, third & fourth; pleaded the fifth to previous victories to take victory once again, won the sixth, and took Honda's 100 victory on home soil in a 7 streak win. Headline-wise this might sound boring, but it is the way in which he has achieved it that matters.
"Marc, how do you do it?"- "Easy Lewis, you have fun, and most of all you congratulate your competition for the battle."
He has surpassed every driver in the category and whether or not he started from pole, he has fought long and hard to edge the competition on every race. He has battled everyone's favorite Italian in a few occasion, even when Rossi has seen a resurgence this season by edging his team mate Jorge Lorenzo, he still has not stepped on the top step on his Yamaha return.
Lorenzo brought the battle at Mugello, but was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
Lorenzo who last year took the battle to Marquez to the very end, is a distant 97 points behind this season as a rather flawless Marc has taken straight victories. Although the headlines might read so, if you re-watch the races (assuming you haven't yet) you will see that it was no easy feat. It wasn't do to superior machinery, ala Mercedes-AMG in F1 this season. It has been a battle on 4 very equal bikes, where skill and cool-headedness has determined the winner.
From the get-go, Marquez faced an uphill battle at LeMans, here he is in the middle of the pack (the second orange rider).
Take LeMans for example, where a bad launch from Marquez saw him drop from first to tenth in the first few corners and then saw him fight his way up the field, surpassing his potential title rivals; Jorge Lorenzo (6th), Dani Pedrosa (5th), and Valentino Rossi (2nd) to emerge victorious with a lap to go. Or take Mugello where Marquez and his straight-line Honda missile had to overcome the charging Lorenzo and his curve sweeping Yamaha. After exchanging positions for the last 5 laps, saw Marquez once more emerge ahead of his competition.
After his National Futbol team fail to win, Marc Marquez took matters into his hands and gave the Spanish people hope by winning on home ground.
This brings me to this weekends circuit de Catalunya, which is home turf to 3 of the 4 top riders. Marquez started 3rd after he late brake into turn 1 and fell during qualifying Leaving Pedrossa and Lorenzo ahead of him. Rossi who fell in tricky damp condition during the warm-up started 5th already signaling that this showdown could be for the rider who correctly forecast-ed a coming rain, or decided to stay out and push the limits of grip to the very edge. And so it began; a battle that saw Lorenzo sprint to the lead, one which he did not hold on for long as a sprinting Rossi took off and look comfortable leading to the midway point. Lap after lap Marc began refining his style, one which he had to change due to the high curb nature of the circuit; his usual flung out elbow that goes low on the ground was now tugged to his side. Yet he masterfully began discounting milliseconds quicker than Walmart can drop prices during a summer sale. And so from fourth he overtook a slowing Lorenzo ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ); quickly disposed of Danny who seems to still have some issues from his earlier surgery; and finally caught up to Rossi. Failing a few times to make the maneuver stick, he finally surpassed the Italian, who later got caught by a re-surging Pedrosa, only to watch him and Marc battle for supremacy. Unluckily for the Dani, a misjudged braking move saw him gently clip Marc's back tire, forcing him wide on the turn (lucky to not fall off though) allowing the Italian to pass him to take on second place as he finished third.
Once a fan of Rossi, Marquez has surpassed his idol.
And so, after seven races we have Marquez leading Rossi by 58 points. And though this dominance has been much clearer than that inF1, it has proven that having a single winner is not boring at all, as long as you have riders [other than the teammate(s)] that can still challenge for the lead. So lets toast with some winner's champagne to some of the closest racing this year thus far; and to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .
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"As you see Fernando, just like your mono-posto, this bike is rubbish"
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