Analysis: The key moments of Marquez's third MotoGP title
With insight from crew chief Santi Hernandez, Oriol Puigdemont looks back at Marc Marquez's title-winning MotoGP campaign and examines the key moments that led to him being crowned three-time champion.
Photo by: Repsol Media
Marquez's latest MotoGP title success is the result of a new way of approaching the championship, which can be explained perfectly using four races (Barcelona, Sachsenring, Aragon and Motegi) and two tests (Brno and Aragon).
These are, according to Marquez himself and his team, the key moments of the season; days that demonstrated what the new version of the Spanish rider is made of to have become infallible.
Marquez has more victories (five) and podiums (11) than anybody else, and he is also the only rider - not only in MotoGP, but in all categories - to have scored in all races.
Barcelona
"Catalunya is important because it reflects a change of mentality," says Hernandez, referring to the second place that his rider scored in his home race.
"Letting Valentino win was not easy, but it was the right thing to do. He tried and saw that the risk was too high under those circumstances," adds the engineer, who for many races told his rider that the most important thing was not to crash in the race.
"I've taken risks on Fridays and Saturdays, finding the limits, but never on Sundays," says Marquez.
Sachsenring
"The courage he showed there proved the kind of person he is. It wasn't easy at all to pit at that moment," explains Hernandez about that chaotic German Grand Prix that started on a soaked asphalt that dried up as the laps went by.
Marquez, who had just gone off, was running in traffic, over 10 seconds off the lead, when he decided to switch to his second bike, fitted with slick tyres. "It was risky but it worked out well. In any case I was in a position to take a big risk," says the 23-year-old.
Aragon
"Alcaniz was critical. The others were reducing the points gap and when he won again he was telling them that if they wanted the title they had to take risks," says the engineer from Barcelona.
All the patience that the #93 had in the races that in theory were not favourable for him paid off at Motorland, when for the first time he felt the Honda was competitive enough to take a risk and aim for victory.
"I won in Germany (July) and time went by and I wasn't winning again. I started to get nervous but Santi and Emilio [Alzamora, his manager] told me to calm down, that Aragon was coming," recalls Marquez. "And the time to feel strong arrived."
Brno and Aragon tests
"The bike that we had in pre-season and in the first races improved a lot from the halfway point of the season," insist Hernandez, who has been with the Catalan since he moved up to Moto2 in 2011, as a 125cc champion.
The test that took place at Brno after the Czech Grand Prix meant a significant step forward because they managed to mitigate a large part of the acceleration problems. The debut of the 2017 bike was originally scheduled for that test, but Honda decided to focus on this year's bike to try to fine-tune it for the second half of the season.
"We improved a lot there, both in terms of electronics and with the winglets, and we confirmed that at Aragon," says Marquez.
Motegi
"It wasn't easy at all to win, but Marc knew that he was strong and decided to push. Then came Valentino's fall," says Hernandez, the leader of a crew which is more like a group of friends.
The victory that crowned the Spaniard for the third time in the top category is the one that highlights how much his bike has improved, which in theory has to struggle on a track where braking and acceleration are key.
Already from Friday, the man from Lleida felt at home on a track where he had never won in MotoGP. The showing on Sunday is the clearest evidence that Honda found the light at the end of a tunnel that six months ago appeared to not have any.
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