First win for Marc Márquez in Spanish Grand Prix

© David Davies/PA Wire

By Dan Moakes
May 30 2014

Marc Márquez seemed right on course to defend his title in the 2014 FIM MotoGP World Championship, with three wins from three races as likely challenger Jorge Lorenzo trailed in seventh place overall. In round four the two men would be aiming for glory at home in Spain.

There is no shortage of Spanish MotoGP racers for the home fans to get behind at Jeréz, including the top three from the 2013 championship: Márquez, Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa. Also on the grid would be brothers Aleix and Pol Espargaró, plus Álvaro Bautistá and Héctor Barberá. Of the likely front runners, Márquez was the man who had never won a Spanish Grand Prix race in all his six seasons as a GP racer.

In qualifying for his 100th GP start, Márquez certainly looked like he was aiming to put that right, taking pole position for the fourth time running in 2014 on the Repsol Honda. Lorenzo would be starting his 200th race, and he duly took second place on the MoviStar Yamaha. Pedrosa was third on the other Repsol machine, and Valentino Rossi was fourth on the other MoviStar bike. The other factory-backed Honda and Yamaha bikes were outside the top six but all in the top ten.

As usual, Aleix Espargaró was fastest of the Open class runners, putting his Forward Yamaha fifth, ahead of the leading Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso. Then it was Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda), Pol Espargaró and Bradley Smith (both Tech 3 Yamaha) and Bautistá (Gresini Honda). The remaining Ducati runners were back in the pack somewhat, with Cal Crutchlow still not fully injury free and starting from P14. Michele Pirro reappeared as a wildcard for the works team, starting from P17, and the Pramac team riders Andrea Iannone and Yonny Hernández were fifteenth and nineteenth respectively.

In eleventh was Colin Edwards on the second NGM Forward Yamaha, from Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama (both Drive M7 Aspar Honda), Crutchlow, Iannone, Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Honda), Pirro, Scott Redding (GO&FUN; Gresini Honda), Hernández, Danilo Petrucci (IodaRacing ART), Michael Laverty (PBM), Mike di Meglio (Avintia), Broc Parkes (also PBM) and Barberá (also Avintia). Petrucci would not race, after he broke his wrist in the warm-up session. Superbike regular Leon Camier was already being talked about as a possible future substitute.

Form guide: GP wins at Jeréz
Rossi 8; Lorenzo 4; Pedrosa 3; P.Espargaró 2; Aoyama, Bautistá, Iannone & Smith 1

Dovizioso made a good start to the race, finding the inside line for the first right-hander at Curva Expo 92, which put him at the head of the field. It was a brief lead, however, as the Ducati man ran wide so that Márquez was able to get through. The following right at Curva Michelin saw Rossi also overtake ‘Dovi’, and soon after Lorenzo had pushed him back to fourth, with Pedrosa fifth. One of the key overtaking opportunities at Jeréz, is at the tight right at Curva Dry Sack, at the end of the back straight. This corner saw Rossi take the lead with an inside move on Márquez.

At this point, the order saw Rossi leading Márquez, Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Pedrosa, Smith, Bradl and Aleix Espargaró. The final corner on the track is a tight left-hander known as Curva Ducados until being renamed in honour of Jorge Lorenzo. This corner saw Márquez retake the advantage from Rossi, braking on the inside. However, at Expo 92 it was Marc’s turn to go wide, and Valentino was able to get past again at Michelin, with Lorenzo trying to follow suit. Pedrosa was soon through to fourth at the expense of former team-mate Dovizioso.

In common with the previous race in Argentina, there was some frantic action involving several men for the leading positions early on, and the next change saw Márquez get past Rossi on the inside at Dry Sack, with Lorenzo trying around the outside. This allowed Pedrosa to briefly move inside the second Yamaha, but in the end only the first two swapped positions. Before long, Dovizioso was losing ground to the four works men from the Japanese manufacturers; and a bit further back Bradl and Iannone were swapping back-and-forth.

Once through into the lead, Márquez was able to increase his advantage steadily, and soon enough he was more than a couple of seconds to the good. Three men contested second place, with Rossi heading Lorenzo and Pedrosa. Meanwhile, Aleix Espargaró had passed Smith to run sixth behind Dovizioso. The Italian rider’s team-mates came to grief early on, with Pirro crashing and Crutchlow having to stop due to braking problems. Abraham had already gone down but managed to get going again in last position. Later he stopped altogether in the pits after his second crash.

With ten laps remaining, Márquez had left the rest in his wake and was about 5.0s clear. Once again it was his race. The battle for second remained close, although Rossi did get his advantage up to 0.9s or so. In the later stages, Pedrosa moved up to third using the slipstream to aid his pass on Lorenzo on the inside for Dry Sack. Thereafter, Dani was able to start pulling away and closing in on Valentino. With a couple of laps left there was about 0.4s in it, but Rossi was just ahead at the finishing line, and Lorenzo was some way back as he took fourth.

From eighth position, Iannone had suffered a lowside crash at Ducados. He continued and made back a couple of positions in the lower orders, but finished the race in the pits. The riders left running in the wake of the big four had begun to get well spread out, with Dovizioso not quite shaking off Aleix Espargaró. Behind them, a battle developed between Smith, Bradl and Bautistá. The German rider had moved up to seventh on the inside at Ducados, but had run wide and let the other two through on him. This left Álvaro to challenge Bradley for the position.

There was some back and forth between the two of them in the Ducados-Expo 92-Michelin sequence, with the Gresini Honda man finally through and then chasing after the pair ahead. Espargaró would go on to challenge Dovi in the late stages, briefly holding fifth a couple of times. When Aleix had a ‘moment’ after losing out at Expo 92, Bautistá got past on the inside through the exit of the corner. They finished in close succession, with Dovizioso heading Bautistá, Espargaró and Smith. Earlier, Bradl had gone very wide at Dry Sack, allowing Pol Espargaró to close in, and by the end the Yamaha rider had got ahead.

Aoyama made up a couple of spots to finish in twelfth behind team-mate Hayden, with Redding gaining P13 from Hernández. Towards the back, di Meglio had struggled with his rear tyre and did not make it all the way to the end. This meant that the last point went to Barberá, who was followed home by Laverty, Parkes and Edwards. At different times earlier on, Laverty and then Edwards had headed this group.

100 points from four races meant that 21-year-old Marc Márquez was still on a 100% record for the season, and again nobody had looked like beating him. But for the second time a resurgent Valentino Rossi had defeated the second works Honda of Dani Pedrosa, plus his own team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, to finish ‘best of the rest’. Lorenzo was ‘only’ fourth in the race but he did therefore gain two positions in the championship, and should at least be expected to move into the top four before much longer. Can he be the first man to finish in front of Márquez in 2014?

Standings after four races: Márquez 100; Pedrosa 72; Rossi 61; Dovizioso 45; Lorenzo 35; Bradl and A.Espargaró 30; Smith 28; Iannone and P.Espargaró 25 ·· Open leader: A.Espargaró.
Honda 100; Yamaha 67; Ducati 48; Forward Yamaha 30; ART and Avintia 2; PBM 1.

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