News 27 Sep 2016

Aragon victory matches Marquez with Doohan on 54 wins

Spaniard climbs to equal sixth most GP wins of all-time.

Source: Supplied.

Source: Supplied.

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez is now tied with Australia’s five-time 500cc world champion Mick Doohan on the all-time wins list in sixth, with 54 grand prix wins following a controlled victory at MotorLand Aragon last weekend.

At just 23 years of age, the dual MotoGP world champion collected win number 54 at home – his fourth of the year – extending his 2016 points lead to over 50 with four rounds remaining this season.

“I’m very happy to have taken the win at a home grand prix and one of my favourite races,” Marquez beamed. “I was waiting for this GP, it was a ‘red point’ on the calendar for me, as I saw it as one where I wanted to attack and where I could win the race. It was an important victory, but nothing is finished yet.

“I said yesterday that something can always happen in a race and it was a miracle that I didn’t crash today when I almost lost it in turn seven. That was when I decided to relax a little and go back to my mentality from practice of riding precisely and braking in the right places.

“All this made for a more entertaining race, with many overtaking moves at the start and a second part in which I was able to open a gap to Valentino [Rossi], which was important. He had gone several races gaining points on us and we wanted to stop that trend, because otherwise it would boost his morale and perhaps create doubts for us.

“Now we leave Aragón with a larger advantage and more convinced ahead of the fly-aways. I was very happy on the podium, but the most emotional moment for me today was when [brother] Alex scored his first Moto2 podium. That was really special for me.”

Marquez’s win tally is made up of 28 in MotoGP, 16 in Moto2 and 10 in 125GP, while all of Doohan’s 54 came in the premier class. Of the current active riders, Rossi is ranked second overall on 114 wins and Jorge Lorenzo fifth on 66.

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