MotoGP Valencia race report: Another new record

Marc Marquez sets new single season win record with 13th victory in final race of the season; Valentino Rossi second, Dani Pedrosa third, Jorge Lorenzo DNF

On a day when his brother Alex Marquez won the Moto3 World Championship a few hours earlier and put the family name in the history books as the first siblings to win GP world titles in the same year, elder brother Marc put his own stamp on the history books by setting the single-season win record with his 13th victory on a day where rain threatened to upset the proceedings. Marquez overcame tricky conditions when spots of light rain began to fall with 12 laps to go, getting past both Pramac Ducati's Andrea Iannone and Movistar Yamaha's Valentino Rossi to take a 3.5-second victory. Rossi held on to take second, with Marquez's Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa working his way back up to third after getting shuffled back in the early going. Rossi's teammate Jorge Lorenzo made a gamble by switching to his rain setup bike when the rain began to fall, but that bet failed when the rain never really materialized in full, forcing the Majorcan to pull out of the race.

"All I can say is that I'm happier than Motegi when I won the title because when I saw my brother there on the top like a world champion, the feeling was so great," said Marc Marquez about his younger brother." Just 20 minutes before my race I was celebrating the title with everybody. And then in my race it was just to finish the year in a good way with this victory. Now it's time to enjoy 2014 because it will be very, very difficult, maybe even impossible to repeat."

"The race was very hard, very difficult to concentrate and understand the situation because of the rain. When it started to rain mid-race, I remembered the Aragon race where I made a big mistake. But today I made the correct decision to stay out, be careful when it was completely wet, then on the last laps push a little bit more to get this victory."

"I'm happy because I finish a very positive season for me and my team with a great race, with a good result here in Valencia," said Rossi afterward. "For me it's a great achievement to take the pole position and finish in second place especially because this race was very difficult, the conditions were very dangerous. It's little bit of a shame because I was not so far from Marc and I had a good pace. But after I start to suffer a bit on the right with the tire, but anyway it was a good season. Second in the championship, a lot of podiums, two victories; now we have to work to make it better next year. Unfortunately I had some bad luck this year and its name is Marquez (laughs). Because without him I can win the championship and a lot of races. But he did a fantastic job, he won a lot of races, it's a great pleasure to fight with him. But we are not so far; we don't give up, we try to finish closer."

MotoGP Valencia race results:

Pos. Rider Country Team Machine
1 Marc Marquez SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda
2 Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha
3 Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda
4 Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team Ducati
5 Cal Crutchlow GBR Ducati Team Ducati
6 Pol Espargaro SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha
7 Aleix Espargaro SPA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha
8 Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda
9 Michele Pirro ITA Ducati Team Ducati
10 Scott Redding GBR GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda
11 Hector Barbera SPA Avintia Racing FTR/Kawasaki
12 Danilo Petrucci ITA Octo Ioda Racing Ioda/Aprilia
13 Nicky Hayden USA Drive M7 Aspar Honda
14 Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha
15 Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Drive M7 Aspar Honda
16 Alvaro Bautista SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda
17 Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Honda
18 Alex De Angelis ITA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha
19 Michael Laverty IRL Paul Bird Motorsport ART/Aprilia
20 Broc Parkes AUS Paul Bird Motorsport ART/Aprilia
21 Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing FTR/Kawasaki
22 Andrea Iannone ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati
DNF Jorge Lorenzo SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha
DNF Randy De Puniet FRA Team Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki
DNF Yonny Hernandez COL Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati