Marquez: 1st Moto2 Victory in France

France Moto2

The first three races in the 2011 Moto2 season didn’t go too well for the rookie Repsol pilot Marc Marquez.

The 18-year-old Spaniard DNF’d in the first two rounds in Qatar and Jerez, and then finished 21st in Estoril. These results gave Marquez zero points as the Moto2 grid headed into France last weekend to compete at Le Mans. But that was about to change.

Typical of his style last year en route to the 125cc MotoGP title, Marquez looked strong, and eventually took the win at Le Mans. With his first victory in the intermediate class, Marquez became the youngest rider to ever win a Moto2 race since it’s inception last season.

Starting from sixth on the grid, Marquez didn’t get a great start at Le Mans Moto2. He fell back to 10th, and slowly began catching up to the lead group. Marquez took the lead from Yuki Takahashi and wasn’t challenged again; Marquez would finish 1.982 seconds ahead of Takahashi.

After Round 4 of 17, Marquez now has 25 points and is in ninth place in the overall standings.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Moto2) says: “At the beginning I did not have a good start, which is what I have to improve in Moto2, but I was able to stay calm. The experience of the first three races allowed me to larn a lot and I knew I had to keep my own pace during the entire race.
I knew that I could be two or three tenths faster, but it was too risky and I saw that I was slowly catching up with the rest.

“I did it step by step because I knew that we will be competitive at the end of the race. Overtaking in this class is more difficult, you have to be sure before gaining a position, but when I sow they were battling, I was able to pass through them.

“Four laps before the end, it started to rain a bit and I decided to overtake Takahashi and Luthi, because I thought that they could stop the race at any time due to the rain. I decided to push and it went well, so I am very happy for this victory. We had prepared the race very well and I want to thank Santi [Hernández] and the whole team, because they did a really good job.”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.