[Sport] MotoGP Season retrospective

Part three of  my motorcycling season review will cover the top flight category: MotoGP. I've already written brief reviews of the intermediate categories, Moto2 and Moto3, but these are the big bikes.

(Credit: motogp.com)

I used to enjoy watching MotoGP, but the 125cc category was always my favourite. When I lost interest in motorcycling as a sport for a while it was the top flight that really killed it for me. About mid way through the 2000s it sort of got a bit dull. Rossi was still great, and there was Stoner to challenge him. Then Lorenzo turned up, and between the three of them (plus Dani Pedrosa) the racing was decent every now and then. But on the whole it was turning into Formula 1 a little; the bikes quickly spread out along the track, and actual overtaking was often quite rare. Not to mention the fact that numbers were quickly dropping, with first Kawasaki and then Suzuki leaving the sport. So I stopped watching.

It's odd really, because I was still regularly watching F1 Grand Prix, yet the similar style of racing in MotoGP left me cold. I think there are a couple of reasons for that. The first would be that I'd grown up with motorcycling being the close, exciting racing, sportscars being the long, strategic battle, and F1 occupying a sort of middle ground. So when MotoGP moved towards the other two, it lost its edge for me. I expected, and wanted, motorbikes swapping positions all the time, and I wasn't getting it. There wasn't even the strategic element of pitstops, as in F1, to maintain interest. The second reason I think was the lack of entries. When the top motorcycling category has 12 entries, it's almost not worth watching.

But over the last couple of years things have got better. Numbers are up again with the introduction of the CRT rules, introducing a second tier of entries, and there are new riders coming through the ranks. One in particular has made this season one of the most exciting for years: Marc Marquez.

It was great to see big grids in MotoGP again. The CRT rules seem to have been a success,

and by the end of the year the top CRT bikes were right up there in qualifying. (Credit: wallpis.com)

Yes, he's another young Spanish rider, which means that, like Moto3, it's three Spaniards fighting for the crown. But his rise through the ranks has been nothing short of meteoric. His first season in 125cc was only 6 seasons ago; he won the title in 2010, then moved up to Moto2. He would have won the championship there in his rookie season, but missed a couple of races after a nasty crash. So he did it in his second year, 2012, and Honda moved heaven and Earth to sign him. They were rewarded - he became the first rider in 35 years to win the title in his rookie year, and the youngest ever MotoGP champion at age 20 (which is incredibly depressing).

The season has been an exciting one. Dani Pedrosa has been on top form, and has even managed to avoid injury. But he's been blown away by his young teammate, and after a strong start faded badly towards the end of the season. Part of the reason was the psychological battle in my opinion. No matter what he tried, Marquez found a way to beat him, and I think that knocked the fight out of him. Similarly, Cal Crutchlow gave a good account of himself in the first half of the season, but then his results dropped off and he had to push too hard to keep up with the factory bikes and their much greater development, leading to some nasty crashes on a few too many occasions. The other disappointment was Rossi. I wasn't as optimistic as a lot of people about his return to Yamaha, but even my expectations were too high. His two years at Ducati seem to have destroyed his confidence, and he's looking more and more like he's past it. Actually he reminded me this year of Michael Schumacher on his ill-judged return to F1 - still clearly skilled, but having to try hard to keep up with the young guns, and making mistakes that would have been uncharacteristic previously.

Valentino Rossi wasn't himself this year. I hope he's stronger in 2014, but I'm not hopeful. (Credit: motogp.com)

The two title pretenders were Lorenzo and Marquez, and they went at it hammer and tongs. But it seemed that more often than not Marquez would sneak out the win somehow, or pass by half distance and then romp into the distance, as he did in only his second MotoGP race at the Circuit of the Americas (although it equally happened the other way around on many occasions). Yet he tried his best to hand the championship to Lorenzo, with the bizarre race at Philip Island being the turning point. Bridgestone wouldn't guarantee the safety of their tires for more than 10 laps on the resurfaced track (that was the final number for the race; it started much higher than that!), so the teams were told to make an obligatory pitstop after lap 9 or lap 10. Somehow though Marquez's team managed to mess up that simple instruction, coming in at the end of lap 10, leading to his disqualification. So it was all to play for going into the final race. Actually that incident highlighted some interesting politics going on in the Honda garage, as not everyone seemed to be in on 'the plan'.

The last race in Valencia had a lot of this going on. It was nail-bitingly close. (Credit: motogp.com)

Valencia was a great race, with lots of elbows out, aggressive manoeuvres from Lorenzo. He clearly wasn't comfortable doing that though, and gave up about part way through. Before that though there were passes, repasses, and re-repasses going on every lap. It was great - just like the races of old. In the end though, third place was enough for Marc Marquez to win the MotoGP World Championship.

I can't wait for next year, and to see how Yamaha and Lorenzo respond, not to mention the tension within Honda with Dani Pedrosa. Plus Cal Crutchlow is moving to Ducati, so we'll see if he can do what Rossi failed to do, and tame the beast.