All Marc Marquez needs to do to secure his fifth MotoGP World Championship – reinforcing his run of “youngest-ever” statistics in the process – is to lose no more than two points to Ducati rival Andrea Dovizioso.
If so (if for example Dovi is fourth and he is fifth), his current 77-point advantage will drop to 75, equalling the number of points still available over the last three races. But he has seven wins so far to Dovi’s three, so even if the Italian was to win the next three races, Marc would still be champion.
If Dovizioso was to win on Sunday, however, and Marquez fail to score; the Ducati rider would still need to finish ahead of him next weekend in Australia as well, and win at least twice more this year, to overturn the situation.
The pressure on Marquez to succeed at Honda’s home track, as he did in 2014 and 2016, is reinforced by the presence of not only HRC senior management, but also Takehiro Hachigo, the president of the entire Honda Motor Co.
Qualifying on the second row was not the best omen, but in FP4 – when riders generally test race set-up, tyres and endurance – he was significantly fastest, and almost half-a-second better than fourth-placed Dovizioso.
He explained his subsequent qualifying showing.
“In FP4 I crashed on the bike that I was feeling very strong and constant with, while my second bike had quite a different setup that I didn’t like as much. We had no time to change it, so I started qualifying expecting to struggle a bit, although still with the aim of earning a start position on the front two rows.”
He continued: “We know that our race pace is good for tomorrow, and we’re happy with that.”
Marquez deposed Freddie Spencer as the youngest-ever champion when he took the MotoGP crown at his first attempt in 2013. This year, he stands to become the youngest to achieve five premier-class titles. He already has the Moto2 and 125cc crowns.
All riders of Japanese bikes will be feeling the pressure, with their company presidents looking on. Yamaha Motor Co president Yoshihiro Hidaka and Suzuki president Toshihiro Suzuki will also be in the crowd.
By Michael Scott
Photos GnG