Marc Marquez did exactly what he needed to do in order to clinch the 2014 world championship title—finish second and ahead of Valentino Rossi and teammate Dani Pedrosa.
The Spanish rider adds a second world title to his impressive and record-breaking CV. It wasn’t without action as the leaders were all close to each for most of the race. Jorge Lorenzo secured his second win in a row but Honda enjoys their first world title won at their home grand prix at Motegi.
Rossi made a great fight out of it trying to hold off a charging Marquez but couldn’t prevent the Spaniard from taking second place on the 16th lap.
Lorenzo finished with 2.7 seconds in hand with Dani Pedrosa coming in 4th.
Marquez has been a singular talent in MotoGp rewriting history books and galvanizing the competition. While it has been a dominating year for the Spanish champion, the series still managed to put on some great races and Motegi was no different.
Marc is the youngest ever rider to win two consecutive premier-class World Championships at the age of 21 years 237 days, taking the record from Mike Hailwood who was 23 years 152 days when he won his second successive 500cc title in 1963. Marquez said:
“I 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! 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 – 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 – and especially to my family and the team, who are the foundation for all of this.”
Congratulation to the MotoGP world champions Marc Marquez and Honda.
| 1 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | Yamaha | 42m21.259s |
| 2 | Marc Marquez | Honda | Honda | 1.638s |
| 3 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | Yamaha | 2.602s |
| 4 | Daniel Pedrosa | Honda | Honda | 3.157s |
| 5 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | Ducati | 14.353s |
| 6 | Andrea Iannone | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 16.653s |
| 7 | Stefan Bradl | LCR | Honda | 19.531s |
| 8 | Pol Espargaro | Tech 3 | Yamaha | 19.815s |
| 9 | Bradley Smith | Tech 3 | Yamaha | 23.575s |
| 10 | Alvaro Bautista | Gresini Racing | Honda | 35.687s |
| 11 | Aleix Espargaro | Forward Racing | Forward Yamaha | 40.668s |
| 12 | Katsuyuki Nakasuga | Yamaha | Yamaha | 51.027s |
| 13 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Aspar | Honda | 51.093s |
| 14 | Nicky Hayden | Aspar | Honda | 55.792s |
| 15 | Hector Barbera | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 59.089s |
| 16 | Scott Redding | Gresini Racing | Honda | 59.508s |
| 17 | Alex de Angelis | Forward Racing | Forward Yamaha | 1m16.547s |
| 18 | Michael Laverty | Paul Bird Motorsport | PBM/Aprilia | 1m28.021s |
| 19 | Mike Di Meglio | Avintia Racing | Avintia/Kawasaki | 1m29.470s |
| 20 | Broc Parkes | Paul Bird Motorsport | PBM/Aprilia | 1m33.253s |
| – | Yonny Hernandez | Pramac Racing | Ducati | Retirement |
| – | Karel Abraham | Cardion AB Motoracing | Honda | Retirement |
| – | Danilo Petrucci | IodaRacing Project | ART/Aprilia | Retirement |
| – | Cal Crutchlow | Ducati | Ducati | Retirement |
I was so hoping that The Doctor could hold on to P2. It was a nice battle, though.
I was too! I would have loved to see Rossi hold him off and take it to the next race. My man Lorenzo looks terrific now after a real struggle in the first half of the season.
I like Motegi as a circuit, was hoping Rossi could hold him off too, but full credit to our World Champion Marquez, incredible season for him. I was thinking that when I was watching it regarding Lorenzo’s late season upturn in form. Now I know we have a few rounds still to go but as we now have a new world champion, which is great for the series. It does feel like alot of positivity has re-entered into MotoGP this season, sure Marquez dominated in many ways, but I thought the races have actually been really worth watching this year,… Read more »