MotoGP Feature: 2013 Season Recap
Michael Scott | November 14, 2013
What a season. What a battle. And what a winner. Just four points in it at the end, as Marc Marquez concluded his record-breaking season with yet another set of premier-class records.
At 20, he is the youngest ever World Champion. He won it after receiving a message from Freddie Spencer, the 1983 champion: “It’s about time somebody broke my record.”
He is also only the third class rookie in history to win the title.
The first, in the mists of time, was Gilera rider Umberto Masetti – at least under the current definition of rookie, a rider in his first full season. Masetti, like Marquez, had raced in the smaller classes in 1949, the first year of the championship, but not a full 500cc season.
The second was Kenny Roberts, in 1978. A real rookie: He’d never raced in GPs before.
And now the youngster from Catalunya, with the smile of The Joker.
Marquez also broke Valentino Rossi’s record. It took Rossi five years to win the championship in all three classes. It took Marquez four – and Rossi was one of the riders he beat.
By the time they reached the final race, there was just one rival left, Jorge Lorenzo on the Yamaha. Both had finally outdistanced Marquez’s Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa, by hook or by crook.
Remarkably, all three had scored more than 300 points.
To read more of the 2013 MotoGP season recap, click here