2013 Motegi MotoGP | Results

Yamaha Factory Racing's Valentino Rossi

2013 Japanese Grand Prix MotoGP Results

Spoiler Alert: 2013 MotoGP results from Twin Ring Motegi, Japan, listed below

Heading into the penultimate round of the 2013 MotoGP Championship – also the final race in three back-to-back rounds – Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez held an 18-point lead on Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo.

The 20-year-old Spaniard needed to leave the Motegi with 26 points or more ahead of Lorenzo, and he would become the first rookie to take a MotoGP title since Freddie Spencer 35 years.

But Lorenzo was hungry for a third premier-class title, and ran a flawless race Sunday. Thankfully riders were greeted with dry conditions, not like the rain that had affected the Motegi circuit Friday and Saturday. The inclement weather kept the riders off the track on Friday, and on Saturday Race Direction amended the events to one, 50-minute qualifying session.

Even in the wet Lorenzo was hungry, taking his fourth pole position by over six-tenths of a second from Marquez. And on Sunday, he fended off many attacks from the Repsol Honda duo of Marquez and Dani Pedrosa.

But Lorenzo ran a disciplined 24 laps, leading from lights to the checkered flag. Joining Lorenzo on the podium was Marquez and Pedrosa, respectively. With his win, the title fight will go down to the final round set for Valencia Nov. 8-10; Marquez now leads Lorenzo by a mere 13 points. This is the first time the championship went down to the wire since 2006 when then-Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden took the title from Valentino Rossi by five points.

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing YZR-M1 MotoGP) says: “We chose the soft tyre and the others chose the hard tyre, we knew that at the end of the race we might have problems but finally I could push even more the lap times. The strategy could have been different but to take this win at the home of Honda makes me very happy.”

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V MotoGP) says: “Second place today is a very good result. After my crash in warmup, I knew that it would be difficult to be consistent ‒because in the morning I hadn’t managed that either. This was my first time at this track with a MotoGP bike and in practice I was unable to get any references in the dry, leaving me with only the warm up and the race in which to find my way.

“I saw that Jorge [Lorenzo] was a little stronger than us here and I had a couple of scary moments, making me decide that twenty points and the gap being reduced by only five points would be a decent result. There is only one race remaining ‒the most important of the year‒ so we shall try to be more focused than ever at Valencia.”

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V MotoGP) says: “It was a bit of a boring race for me, because I tried to give everything but I had a lot of problems exiting the corners; I was unable to get on the gas fully and I lost a lot of time to Marc (Marquez) and Jorge [Lorenzo]. I was third for the entire race, trying to hold onto them. However, at the midway point of the race my pace started to become slower than theirs. Now we have to focus on the next race, in Valencia, where we shall try to do as well as possible.”

From the pole, Lorenzo would get to the front first, followed by Marquez, Pedrosa and Yamaha Factory Racing’s Rossi. The nine-time World Champion tried to help his teammate out, but suffered braking issues at turn 11 twice, and fell to mid pack.

Lorenzo would come under severe pressure from Marquez at the mid-way point of the race, with Pedrosa in hot pursuit. However, the Mallorcan was spared some breathing space as Marquez made mistakes at both Turn 11 and Turn 1. Marquez would never be as close to Lorenzo again, eventually ending the day 3.1 seconds in arrears. Pedrosa’s third place marked his 12th podium finish of the season, but the Sabadell rider was unable to complete a hat trick of Motegi victories, as his chances for the 2013 world title officially evaporated., MotoGP reports.

Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl rounded out the top five, with the GO&FUN Honda Gresini rider having slipstreamed his way past the LCR Honda MotoGP bike at the start of the eighth lap. Rossi fought back to sixth place after running as low as 11th, while Cal Crutchlow, who suffered from overheating brakes, got the better of impressive Monster Yamaha Tech3 teammate Bradley Smith in seventh and eighth spots, MotoGP reports.

Ducati Team completed the top ten with Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso, while 11th place was taken by wildcard Katsuyuki Nakasuga for the Yamaha YSP Racing Team. In 12th was lead CRT rider Colin Edwards (NGM Mobile Forward Racing), with Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro having become the third of three retirements courtesy of a high-speed accident due to loss of braking power – he escaped with a left hip contusion. Lukas Pesek (Came IodaRacing Project) was first to retire, while Cardion AB Motoracing’s Luca Scassa pulled into the pit lane with a loose right foot peg, MotoGP reports.

2013 Motegi MotoGP Results:

Pos. Points Num. Rider Nation Team Bike Km/h Time/Gap
1 25 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 162.3 42’34.291
2 20 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 162.1 +3.188
3 16 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 162.1 +4.592
4 13 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 161.1 +19.755
5 11 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 160.9 +22.810
6 10 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 160.8 +24.637
7 9 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 160.6 +27.496
8 8 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 160.4 +30.969
9 7 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 160.0 +37.010
10 6 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 159.7 +42.944
11 5 21 Katsuyuki NAKASUGA JPN Yamaha YSP Racing Team Yamaha 159.0 +53.345
12 4 5 Colin EDWARDS USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 158.4 +1’03.213
13 3 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Power Electronics Aspar ART 158.2 +1’06.840
14 2 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 158.1 +1’08.218
15 1 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Ignite Pramac Racing Ducati 157.5 +1’18.240
16 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Blusens FTR 157.5 +1’19.108
17 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Avintia Blusens FTR 157.3 +1’21.174
18 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 156.8 +1’30.546
19 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport ART 153.7 +2’23.358
20 71 Claudio CORTI ITA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 154.4 1 Lap
21 50 Damian CUDLIN AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 153.4 1 Lap
22 67 Bryan STARING AUS GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda 153.2 1 Lap
Not Classified
41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Power Electronics Aspar ART 158.3 12 Laps
23 Luca SCASSA ITA Cardion AB Motoracing ART 144.3 23 Laps
52 Lukas PESEK CZE Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 139.3 23 Laps

2013 MotoGP Championship Point Standings (after 17 or 18 rounds):

Pos. Rider Bike Nation Points
1 Marc MARQUEZ Honda SPA 318
2 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha SPA 305
3 Dani PEDROSA Honda SPA 280
4 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha ITA 224
5 Cal CRUTCHLOW Yamaha GBR 188
6 Alvaro BAUTISTA Honda SPA 160
7 Stefan BRADL Honda GER 146
8 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati ITA 133
9 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati USA 118
10 Bradley SMITH Yamaha GBR 107
11 Aleix ESPARGARO ART SPA 88
12 Andrea IANNONE Ducati ITA 57
13 Michele PIRRO Ducati ITA 50
14 Colin EDWARDS FTR Kawasaki USA 40
15 Randy DE PUNIET ART FRA 36
16 Hector BARBERA FTR SPA 31
17 Danilo PETRUCCI Ioda-Suter ITA 24
18 Yonny HERNANDEZ Ducati COL 21
19 Hiroshi AOYAMA FTR JPN 13
20 Claudio CORTI FTR Kawasaki ITA 11
21 Ben SPIES Ducati USA 9
22 Katsuyuki NAKASUGA Yamaha JPN 5
23 Alex DE ANGELIS Ducati RSM 5
24 Karel ABRAHAM ART CZE 5
25 Michael LAVERTY PBM GBR 3
26 Bryan STARING FTR Honda AUS 2
27 Javier DEL AMOR FTR SPA 1

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.