Photography by Gold & Goose
Marc Marquez added another chapter to his already rich MotoGP career. Having long since secured the 2014 title, Marquez still performed a fabulous curtain call for the 2014 season, breaking the record for the most Motorcycle Grand Prix wins in a season by scoring his 13th victory in the finale at Valencia. That breaks the old record of 12 Motorcycle Grand Prix wins in a single season by the legendary Mick Doohan, set in 1997.
It was a red-letter day for the Marquez family, as his younger brother Alex won the Moto3 title earlier in the day. Marc seemed more excited for his brother than for the record he broke.
“Today I am really, really happy,” said a beaming Marquez after the race. “Maybe happier than Motegi (where he wrapped up the title) because today I was really happy for my brother. 50 minutes before the race I was celebrating his victory and then I say ‘OK, go, I need to race.’ But you know this last victory to finish the year with a good result was an incredible feeling and now it’s time to enjoy this 2014, because for our family it will be amazing, and we will never forget. I’m really happy for my brother, for all his team, because also his teammate did a very good job. I’m happy for this victory.”
Riding a Repsol Honda, Marquez overcame treacherous on again, off again light rain to pull away to a 3.516-second margin of victory over Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi in the 30 lap finale. Marquez’ teammate Dani Pedrosa rounded out the podium finishers in third, 14.040 seconds back.
Andrea Dovizioso came out on top in an aggressive battle with his Ducati teammate Cal Crutchlow. Pole Espargaro finished just ahead of his brother Pol to finish sixth. Stefan Bradl, Michele Pirro and Scott Redding rounded out the top 10.
American Nicky Hayden finished 13th, inside a great six-rider mid-pack battle that came down to the final lap. Hayden finished the season ranked 16th in an injury-plagued season.
The second-place secured second overall in the final standings for Rossi. His battle for that position was decided when his teammate Jorge Lorenzo gambled by coming in for rain tires earlier in the race and later had to retire when the rain trailed off and his gummy tires were destroyed.
Iannone got a great start and led the field into the first turn followed by pole-winner Rossi. Marquez moved up from the second row to take third. No sooner had the race stated than white flags began to fly indicating rain around the circuit. Fortunately it proved to be fairly light and short-lived, although it inspired hectic activity among crew members on pit row.
Andrea Dovizioso made an aggressive move on his Ducati teammate Cal Crutchlow, but Crutchlow, in spite of the light rain, charged back on his teammate under the brakes to repass. Their torrid battle actually temporarily got them past Dani Pedrosa for fourth, but as the rain stopped Pedrosa was able to race back past the Ducati pair.
Five laps in and Iannone maintained about a one second lead over Rossi. However Marquez was the rider on the move. Perhaps cautious early after a couple of crashes earlier in the weekend, he was beginning to find conditions come back to his favor and he was the fastest rider on the track and closed rapidly on the leading pair. Lorenzo too was picking up his pace and moved into fifth by lap eight.
By lap nine the leading trio ran wheel to wheel and Marquez outbraked Rossi into a tight turn to take over second. In a riveting section of the race on lap 10 Marquez went by Iannone to take over the lead, but Iannone fought back and the two swapped the lead a few times before Marquez took back control. The 101,000 fans came to their feet in appreciation of a great battle.
Lap 12 was a tough one for early leader Iannone. He was passed by both Rossi and Pedrosa and demoted to fourth. And it wasn’t going to get any easier. Not far behind Iannone was a charging Lorenzo.
Wildcard Randy de Puniet pulled into the pits on lap 14, the new Suzuki GP unable to finish in its first race back.
On lap 15 what started as a storybook race for Iannone came to an end when he ran wide and wetn deep into a gravel trap, dropping him from contention.
With 13 laps to go rain began to fall again. It was the last thing Marquez, who’d built a two second lead, wanted to see. Bradley Smith got caught out in the changing conditions and dropped the Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha. It was Lorenzo who seemed to struggle the most in the light rain. Unsettled he dropped back and then pitted, as did Iannone for their rain bikes.
While it rained Rossi closed the gap to Marquez to under a second, but then the already light rain let up even more and things seemed to stabilize with Marquez getting his lead back to nearly a full second on lap 21.
Lorenzo and Iannone dropped to 18th and 19th after coming in for rain setups and with nine laps to go it didn’t appear the gamble was going to pay off for them. For Lorenzo that meant his battle for second in the championship looked out of reach. Now the question was would Lorenzo and Iannone even be able to complete the race on their gummy rain tires.
With five laps to go Lorenzo gave up the race, having completed shredded the rain tire. He didn’t bother re-entering. That gave Rossi second in the final standings.
In the closing laps Marquez pulled away to secure the race. Rossi appeared to be running a safe pace to consolidate his podium. Pedrosa was 14 seconds back in a lonely third. The fierce battle between Ducati teammate Dovizioso and Crutchlow continued, the two desperately wanting to beat each other in their final race a teammates. Dovi edged the Brit at the flag.
It was Honda finishing the season as the Constructors Champion.
Results of the MotoGP race at Valencia, Spain – Nov. 9, 2014
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 154.4 46’39.627
2 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 154.3 +3.516
3 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 153.7 +14.040
4 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 153.5 +16.705
5 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Ducati Team Ducati 153.5 +16.773
6 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 152.4 +37.884
7 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 152.4 +38.168
8 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 152.2 +41.803
9 51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 152.0 +45.710
10 45 Scott REDDING GBR GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 151.7 +51.191
11 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 151.4 +56.512
12 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo IodaRacing Team ART 151.4 +57.000
13 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Drive M7 Aspar Honda 151.4 +57.262
14 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 151.3 +57.517
15 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Drive M7 Aspar Honda 151.3 +58.775
16 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 151.3 +58.864
17 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Honda 151.1 +1’02.389
18 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 150.4 +1’15.795
19 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 149.8 +1’26.309
20 23 Broc PARKES AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 149.3 +1’37.212
21 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Avintia 149.3 1 Lap
22 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 145.4 1 Lap
Not Classified
99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 148.6 6 Laps
14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Team Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 147.7 18 Laps
68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 150.0 21 Laps
Final 2014 MotoGP Standings
1 Marc MARQUEZ Honda SPA 362
2 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha ITA 295
3 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha SPA 263
4 Dani PEDROSA Honda SPA 246
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati ITA 187
6 Pol ESPARGARO Yamaha SPA 136
7 Aleix ESPARGARO Forward Yamaha SPA 126
8 Bradley SMITH Yamaha GBR 121
9 Stefan BRADL Honda GER 117
10 Andrea IANNONE Ducati ITA 102
11 Alvaro BAUTISTA Honda SPA 89
12 Scott REDDING Honda GBR 81
13 Cal CRUTCHLOW Ducati GBR 74
14 Hiroshi AOYAMA Honda JPN 68
15 Yonny HERNANDEZ Ducati COL 53
16 Nicky HAYDEN Honda USA 47
17 Karel ABRAHAM Honda CZE 33
18 Hector BARBERA Ducati SPA 26
19 Michele PIRRO Ducati ITA 18
20 Danilo PETRUCCI ART ITA 17
21 Alex DE ANGELIS Forward Yamaha RSM 14
22 Colin EDWARDS Forward Yamaha USA 11
23 Broc PARKES PBM AUS 9
24 Michael LAVERTY PBM GBR 9
25 Mike DI MEGLIO Avintia FRA 9
26 Katsuyuki NAKASUGA Yamaha JPN 4
27 Leon CAMIER Honda GBR 1
