Feature: MotoGP Mid-Season Progress Report
| August 6, 2013
Yes, it’s that time of year again… the MotoGP season is halfway through. And it hasn’t been dull.
There’s been the rise of a young star with rookie Marc Marquez breaking Freddie Spencer’s record of being the youngest to win in the premier class in the inaugural Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas in Texas; there’s been the return to glory for MotoGP’s biggest star, Valentino Rossi – a winner at Assen; and amidst it all there’s the usual chess game between the established Yamaha and Honda riders – reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo and Repsol Honda veteran Dani Pedrosa.
Here’s Michael Scott’s breakdown of the season thus far for the major players in the game of warfare that is MotoGP.
MARC MARQUEZ
Before the Laguna Seca round, Marquez led on points, with each of the top three having one zero score. What a debut, what a rookie. Two wins, three poles, and never off the rostrum. He rides the factory Honda with aggressive abandon, prompting Valentino Rossi to say (of his Laguna debut) “he reminds me a lot of [Casey] Stoner.” An ominous resemblance, for the established stars.
At Laguna, he made it three wins and stretched his lead. He did so in the same swashbuckling style that earned him the nickname Marc the Merciless in Moto2. He is scared of nobody, fazed by nothing.
Marquez may have started out fast, but even then he still had plenty to learn. He has done so astonishingly fast. And he’s still improving. Talent like this comes very seldom.