Marquez breaks another record with victory in Valencia and Pedrosa completes Repsol Honda double podium clinching 2014 triple crown
2014 World Champion Marc Marquez has broken another record in Valencia today, winning his thirteenth race of the season – the most ever in the premier class. Teammate Dani Pedrosa took third place – continuing his impressive record at the Valencia track with six podium finishes in nine starts in MotoGP – and together the Spanish duo have clinched the Team Championship resulting in back-to-back Triple Crown’s.
It was another complicated race with rain constantly threatening to arrive. Dani starting from 3rd and Marc in 5th traded positions on the opening lap as the race began at a very quick pace with riders jostling for position. Dani fought with Crutchlow in the early laps but finally completed the pass into 4th and joined the battle for the podium. Meanwhile Marc attacked Rossi – setting a new record race lap of 1’31.515 (beating Pedrosa’s 2013 lap of 1’31.628) – and passed him on lap ten and after a brief battle with Iannone on lap eleven, finally took the race lead. The following lap Dani also passed Iannone and began to chase down Rossi and Marc.
Then with twelve laps remaining small spots of rain began to appear. Lorenzo entered the pits for his wet setup bike, but fortunately for the other riders the rain never arrived. Although lap times fluctuated, Marc was able to control his lead and Dani consolidated third place resulting in Repsol Honda winning their 7th Team Championship (since the beginning of the MotoGP class in 2002) to add to the Rider and Constructor Championships and marking Honda’s third Triple Crown in four years and second in succession.
The 2014 season is now officially over but the 2015 season will begin tomorrow with a three day test in Valencia. Dani will be on track after lunch but Marc and his team will take a break and start their testing programme on Tuesday, with Marc’s brother – 2014 Moto3 World Champion Alex – enjoying some laps on the Factory RC213V as a gift from Honda.
Marc Marquez
“I am so pleased, especially for my brother! It is a very happy day, even more than in Motegi when I was crowned Champion. Today Alex took the Moto3 title that he deserved, and to cap it off I was able to close the year with a victory here in Valencia. I congratulate my brother for his season, because both him and Honda have done a great job this year! Now it's time to celebrate in the way that the occasion deserves, because it will be difficult to repeat another season like this. During today's race I was reminded of Aragon, because it was raining and there was a moment in which I considered whether or not to change the bike. In the end we stayed calm and today we were successful with our strategy. It was an ordeal which I enjoyed but suffered a bit at times! Thanks to the whole team for all their efforts this season!”
Dani Pedrosa
“It has not been my best season and obviously I'm not satisfied, but you have to take the positives from the situation because we learned a lot this year. Over the next few days we have some testing and we will try to get the best out of the bike for the next test, which comes in February. Today's race was difficult. It rained a lot in some areas of the track and it was very hard to keep upright because other parts of the track it was dry. We had to take risks and also be careful at the same time. On the other hand, we finished on the podium and that's good because we hadn’t taken points at the previous two races.”
Results Session
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
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Rider standings
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Points | Team | Constructor |
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Location Information
The Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana was completed in 1999 and held rounds of the MotoGP and Spanish Motorcycle Championships in the same year. The Cheste track has several layouts, running anti-clockwise with varying lengths. MotoGP events are held on a 4km track comprising of five right handed corners, eight… read more.
| Length | 4.005 kilometres / 2.489 miles |
| Width | 12 metres |
| Left corners | 9 |
| Right corners | 5 |
| Longest straight | 0.876 kilometres / 0.544 miles |
| Constructed | 1999 |
Circuito de la Comunidad Valenciana Ricardo Tormo, Cheste, Spain - View in Google Maps
Records
| Pole Position | 1m 28.931s (162.1km/h) Maverick Viñales (Aprilia, 2023) |
| Race Lap | 1m 30.145s (159.9km/h) Brad Binder (KTM, 2023) |
| 2023 Race Winner | Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) |
| 2023 Sprint Winner | Jorge Martin (Ducati) |
