The back-to-back world champion holds another record. Marc Márquez won his 13th Grand Prix as he took the MotoGP season finale from Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain. The Catalan rider solely holds the record for most wins in a premier class season, breaking the record set by Mick Doohan in 1997. That year the Australian won 12 races including having a stretch of ten consecutive victories, just like Márquez did this season.
Valentino Rossi started from pole position but never led a lap after losing the lead at the start to Pramac Ducati rider Andrea Iannone. Iannone would lead the first third of the race before Márquez would take point and Rossi would go by for second. Dani Pedrosa finished third but nearly fifteen second back of his Honda teammate. Ducati teammates Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow battled all race long but it was the Italian coming out on top in fourth position.
Pol Espargaró beat his brother for sixth and will beat his brother in the world championship, finishing sixth. Stefan Bradl finished eighth followed by the third factory Ducati of Michele Pirro and Scott Redding rounded out the top ten. Héctor Barberá finished eleventh with Danilo Petrucci coming home in twelfth. Nicky Hayden finished thirteenth with Bradley Smith and Hiroshi Aoyama rounding out the points.
Karel Abraham finished sixteenth followed by Alex de Angelis, Michael Laverty, Broc Parkes and Mike Di Meglio. Iannone had an off cost him a sure top ten and switching to the wet weather bike after a brief drizzle was the final nail in the coffin for the Italian. He was the last finishing rider in twenty-second. Three riders retired from the season finale. Jorge Lorenzo also jumped on the wet weather bike when he lost the front runners of Márquez, Rossi and Pedrosa. It would prove costly for the Majorcan as he lost valuable time and instead of switching back to the dry weather bike, Lorenzo called it a season early. This race ended Lorenzo's streak of nine consecutive podiums. Randy de Puniet retired in the Suzuki's return race. Yonny Hernández was the first rider to retire.
Marc Márquez ends his 2014 championship season with another record. After becoming the first rookie to win the world title since Kenny Roberts in 1978 last year, what will he do next? Considering he was hurt at the season opener in Qatar and said it would be ridiculous to pick him to win that race. Márquez is 21 years old with miles of race track ahead of him. Valentino Rossi will come home second in the world championship as his career has been rejuvenated ever since returning to Yamaha and the 35-year old shows no sign of slowing down. Jorge Lorenzo finishes third in the championship but was a really threat to Márquez the whole second half of the season after scoring nine consecutive podiums. If there is anyone who can take the fight to the Catalan in 2015, it is the Majorcan.
When we look back on 2014, we will remember the dominance of the firecracker that is Marc Márquez. Two seasons and two championship with no end in sight. Whether he lost four positions on lap one or saved what would be a fall for an average rider, it appeared no matter what happened to him in a race, he was going to find away to be on the top step of the podium. Despite setting the record for most wins in a single-season, you know he could have done more. What if he had stayed up at Misano? What if he had pitted a lap earlier at Aragón? What if he stayed up at Phillip Island? He very well could have ended with 16 victories and heading into 2015, it already feels like his new record is already in jeopardy.
We are 140 days away from the start of the 2015 MotoGP season.
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