Moto GP

Marc Marquez Wraps Up 2014 MotoGP Title With Second Place Finish To Lorenzo at Motegi

Author: Aaryn Minerds

Posted:

Monday, October 13th, 2014

9:55 AM

Marc Marquez Wraps Up 2014 MotoGP Title With Second Place Finish To Lorenzo at Motegi

Honda's Marc Marquez raced to his second straight MotoGP championship in just his second year in the premier class by racing to a second place finish at the Motegi circuit in Japan on Sunday the 12th of October.

While Marquez wrapped up the 2014 championship it was Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo who dominated at the Twin Ring Motegi for the second year in a row, taking a perfect victory at the Grand Prix of Japan. Teammate Valentino Rossi also shone, making it a double podium for Yamaha with a strong third place.

Lorenzo had a good start to the 24 lap race when he launched off the second row of the grid to arrive at the first corner in third place. He soon overtook Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso to follow teammate Rossi, who snatched the holeshot into turn one from a second place start position on the grid.

Rossi worked to build a gap of just over 0.404 seconds over the first two laps, but Lorenzo was quick to arrive at the back of the Doctor‰Ûªs YZR-M1. Feeling the heat from Dovizioso and Marc Marquez behind him, Lorenzo took the lead from his teammate on the fourth lap and cleared off at the front to set a new lap record of 1‰Ûª45.350 four laps later.

Jorge Lorenzo impressed on his way to a comfortable race win - Credit: Yamaha Racing

Lorenzo was then able to create a gap of nearly 2.7 seconds to take the flag and score his second consecutive Motegi race victory.

"It‰Ûªs unbelievable!" Lorenzo stated. "It has been a very difficult year but Yamaha has been improving the bike little by little and we‰Ûªre getting better every race.

"In AragÌ_n, because of the 'flag to flag' we were able to win. We were lucky under the circumstances and I also improved in the race compared to the practice. Here we expected to get more and more strong for the race and be able to fight for the win but we didn‰Ûªt expect to lead by this much and have a gap of 2.7 seconds in the middle of the race.

"I‰Ûªm very happy to win the race for the second time in a row. We are happy for Marc that he won the title. This year he was the best in general, so we want to say congratulations. The good thing about this year was that the four top riders were very similar.

"We had very strong races that were consistent and equal, so for the next races I expect a lot of fights. We are very close to the second position and that‰Ûªs our goal. We are going to try.‰Û

Marc Marquez on his way to second place at Motegi - Credit: Honda Racing

Behind Lorenzo Marquez raced through to second place to secure his second straight premier class to become the youngest ever winner of consecutive titles, beating the record of Mike Hailwood that had stood since 1963.

‰ÛÏI am very happy to have sealed this second consecutive World Championship, because although it is difficult to maintain this level, in the end we succeeded!" Marquez said. "Today is the time to enjoy this title.

"In the race I had a very clear objective, which was to finish ahead of Valentino and Dani ‰ÛÒ the other riders did not matter to me so much today. I just had one goal in mind and the important thing is that I was able to achieve it.

"I want to dedicate this title to all the people who have helped me - they know who they are ‰ÛÒ and especially to my family and the team, who are the foundation for all of this.‰Û

Valentino Rossi rouned out the podium - Credit: Yamaha Racing

Finishing on the final step of the podium was Yamaha's Valentino Rossi.

‰ÛÏFrom one side I‰Ûªm very satisfied because the race had a high level." Rossi commented. "We had a high race pace and were braking the lap record. We rode like this from the beginning to the end and I felt good with the bike.

"From the other side it‰Ûªs a shame that I was unable to keep the championship open for another week. I tried to get back on Marc, but unfortunately he had something more than me, so he arrived in front of me.

"I have to say that he deserves this championship. He worked well and was the stronger man this year. Congratulations to him.‰Û

Motegi MotoGP Race Results:
1 Jorge Lorenzo 42'21.259 ESP YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
2 Marc Marquez 1.638 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Valentino Rossi 2.602 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
4 Dani Pedrosa 3.157 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
5 Andrea Dovizioso 14.353 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
6 Andrea Iannone 16.653 ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
7 Stefan Bradl 19.531 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
8 Pol Espargaro 19.815 ESP YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
9 Bradley Smith 23.575 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
10 Alvaro Bautista 35.687 ESP HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
11 Aleix Espargaro 40.668 ESP FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
12 Katsuyuki Kakasuga 51.027 JPN YAMAHA YAMALUBE Racing Team
13 Hiroshi Aoyama 51.093 JPN HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
14 Nicky Hayden 55.792 USA HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
15 Hector Barbera 59.089 ESP AVINTIA Avintia Racing
16 Scott Redding 59.508 GBR HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
17 Alex de Angelis 1'16.547 RSM FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
18 Michael Laverty 1'28.021 WAL PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
19 Mike De Meglio 1'29.470 FRA AVINTIA Avintia Racing
20 Broc Parkes 1'33.253 AUS PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
21 Yonny Hernandez DNF COL DUCATI Pramac Racing
22 Karel Abraham DNF CZE HONDA Cardion AB Motoracing
23 Danilo Petrucci DNF ITA ART IodaRacing Project
24 Cal Crutchlow DNF GBR DUCATI Ducati Team

Marc Marquez celebrates his 2014 championship with the Repsol Honda race team

MotoGP Championship standings After Round 15 of 18:
1 Marc Marquez 312 pts
2 Valentino Rossi 230 pts
3 Dani Pedrosa 230 pts
4 Jorge Lorenzo 227 pts
5 Andrea Dovizioso 153 pts
6 Aleix Espargaro 117 pts
7 Pol Espargaro 116 pts
8 Andrea Iannone 102 pts
9 Stefan Bradl 96 pts
10 Bradley Smith 92 pts
11 Alvaro Bautista 79 pts
12 Cal Crutchlow 63 pts
13 Scott Redding 61 pts
14 Hiroshi Aoyama 54 pts
15 Yonny Hernandez 39 pts
16 Nicky Hayden 37 pts
17 Karel Abraham 33 pts
18 Michele Pirro 11 pts
19 Colin Edwards 11 pts
20 Danilo Petrucci 9 pts
21 Broc Parkes 7 pts

Top Image: Marc Marquez celebrates his 2014 MotoGP championship win

Credit: Honda Racing