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Australia

Record-breaking finish to 2014 for Marquez as he takes win number 13 at Valencia

Marc Marquez streaked away to win the race by 3.516 seconds from Valentino Rossi.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Bridgestone Corporation

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez underlined his dominance in 2014 as the MotoGP™ World Champion became the first rider to claim thirteen premier class victories in a season by taking a masterful win at Valencia.

The season finale commenced in dry conditions, yet light rain began to fall as the first lap was completed creating challenging conditions for the riders. Marquez found himself in third position for the opening nine laps of the race in an entertaining battle with Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi and Pramac Racing’s Andrea Iannone who had a sensational start to the race.

Intermittent rain fell throughout the race, while Marquez seized the race lead from Iannone on lap eleven, after which he was never headed.

Today I am really, really happy, maybe happier than when I won the championship at Motegi as today my brother Alex also won the Moto3 championship.

Marc Marquez

Marquez streaked away to win the race by 3.516 seconds from Rossi, while on the other Repsol Honda RC213V Dani Pedrosa took third position a further ten seconds behind. Despite the variable conditions during the race, Marc Marquez was able to set a new Valencia Circuit Best Lap record of 1’31.515 on the eighth lap.

The cloud cover and lower ambient temperatures resulted in the track temperature reaching a maximum of 21°C for the race, 7°C degrees cooler than yesterday’s peak recording. As was the case throughout the previous sessions, all the Factory Ducati, Honda and Yamaha riders selected the medium compound rear slick for the race with ultimately fifteen of the twenty-five starters selecting this option. The remaining ten riders opted for the soft compound rear slick.

The asymmetric soft compound front slick was the most popular front tyre choice for the race, with fourteen riders selecting it, while ten riders selected the symmetric soft compound front slick. Only one rider, Cardion AB Motoracing’s Karel Abraham opted for the extra-soft symmetric front slick for the race.

Rossi’s second place at Valencia was enough for him to secure second position in the riders’ championship standings with 295 points, thirty-two points ahead of his teammate Jorge Lorenzo who retired from today’s Valencia Grand Prix for only his second DNF of the year. Marquez’s victory sees him end the season on 362 points.

Kyota Futami – General Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department: “Congratulations to Marc and Honda on capping off such a memorable year with a record-breaking thirteenth victory in one season. It was wonderful to end 2014 with such an exciting race with so many riders competing at the highest level. On behalf of everyone at Bridgestone I would like to thank all the teams and riders, Dorna, and IRTA for their support this year and assisting us in our role as Official Tyre Supplier to MotoGP.

I would also like to thank the millions of MotoGP fans around the globe for continuing to support the series in ever-growing numbers and helping to make it the premier motorcycle racing series in the world. This was another successful season for Bridgestone with a total of 19 lap records being set in 2014, and now we look forward to commencing our programme for the 2015 season tomorrow at the Valencia post-race test.”

Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department: “The cool change we expected came through today and so this morning’s Warm Up session helped the riders get a feel for how our various tyre options performed on the cool Valencia track surface. The medium rear slick was selected by the majority of riders, but both the soft and medium rear slicks performed very well over race distance, especially given the variable weather conditions.

It was pleasing that so many riders chose to run our new asymmetric soft compound front slick for the race and both the soft compound front slick options provided a lot of grip in the cool conditions, even with the intermittent rain we experienced. A new Valencia race lap record was a good way to end the year and our engineers are now looking forward to supporting the teams at the post-race test.”

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda – Race Winner: “Today I am really, really happy, maybe happier than when I won the championship at Motegi as today my brother Alex also won the Moto3 championship. This last victory was a great way to finish the year and it’s an incredible feeling and now it’s time to enjoy our 2014 season, especially for my family as today was amazing and we will never forget it.”

Valencia MotoGP™ Top 10 Race Classification

Pos
Rider
Team
Race Time
Gap
1
Marc MARQUEZ
Repsol Honda Team
46'39.627
 
2
Valentino ROSSI
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
46'43.143
3.516
3
Dani PEDROSA
Repsol Honda Team
46'53.667
14.040
4
Andrea DOVIZIOSO
Ducati Team
46'56.332
16.705
5
Cal CRUTCHLOW
Ducati Team
46'56.400
16.705
6
Pol ESPARGARO
Monster Yamaha Tech 3
47'17.511
37.884
7
Aleix ESPARGARO
NGM Forward Racing
47'17.795
38.168
8
Stefan BRADL
LCR Honda MotoGP
47'21.430
41.803
9
Michele PIRRO
Ducati Team
47'25.337
45.710
10
Scott REDDING
GO&FUN Honda Gresini
47'30.818
51.191
 

Bridgestone Motorsport

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Edition

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