While any comparison is marginal and trumped up at best, I was intrigued, nonetheless, by the victory at Aragon that Marc Marquez pulled off today. Marquez extended his lead in the MotoGP championship by winning at Aragon besting Jorge Lorenzo and even creating another issue in which his teammate experienced a high-side crash rendering his title hopes evaporated.
It got me to thinking about Marquez and how brilliant he is on a bike as he leads the 2013 World Championship. He’s winning excessively and truly beating his teammate Dani Pedrosa who is no slouch on a bike.
The key moment may have been the coming together of Honda teammates Pedrosa and Marquez that had me wondering as the crowd cheered wildly for the rookie Spaniard leaving Pedrosa to spin out of the race. It has been reported that Marquez touched Pedrosa’s rear wheel and dislodged a sensor that caused the crash. Marquez had to take the corner wide as he went in too deep but he managed to continue and eventually win the race to the cacophony of Spanish cheering.
I’ll be honest, at that moment the thought of “multi-21” popped in my head. I don’t know why but it did. It brought images of the way Sebastian Vettel ignored team orders and strung his teammate up as fish bait while he took the win in Malaysia this year. I was thinking about this as fans cheered Marquez on to victory and then recalled that I’ve seen quite a bit from the youngster this year.
Checking in with our friend David Emmett for details, I was reminded of this from one of David’s readers (Andy):
Marc has:
-Punted Jorge in the last corner
-Torpedoed Cal and a group of marshals under waved yellows
-Binned his bike at 175mph on the Mugello straight
-Gone off the inside of the corkscrew at Laguna passing Rossi
-Nearly collected the back wheel of the rider in front a number of times by out-braking himself
-Collided with his team mate today, inadvertently causing a dismount
Pedrosa didn’t mince words on his thoughts about his teammates antics:
“I was going into the corner. He was over the limit, completely missed the braking, tried to avoid me and at that moment touched me a little bit and went off. When I opened the gas, the cable of the traction control was broken so I had a big highside and couldn’t really avoid the crash, unfortunately.
“The positive part is that I am physically okay. I had a big impact on my hip and my lower back, but it is nothing really to worry about at the moment. I am just hoping to get physically well for the next race. I have zero points (as a result of the incident) but it wasn’t my mistake today – that is what I take from it.”
As David points out (and this is just in MotoGP, not the lower ranks), Marquez has done a few things that would make Sebastian Vettel blush and yet the rookie has none of the booing, jeers or hateful commentary that seem to be all the rage these days at podium ceremonies in Formula 1.
It’s not a nationality issue as Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Marquez are all Spanish. The race today was in Spain and I have to think the Spanish fans would have enjoyed seeing any one of the three winning the race but they seem to love the aggressive, youthful character of Marquez. They love a new champion and a guy who is doing things that other riders have not done in MotoGP.
As I said, there comparison is not apples-to-apples but it did pop in my head and when I juxtaposed the two—Marquez and Vettel—I am intrigued by the difference in the crowd response. Marquez has clearly had more “issues” this year than nearly the entirety of Vettel’s F1 career and yet the Spanish rookie is hailed as a hero and the fans love him…I think he’s brilliant too! Wonder what the difference really is? Let me know what you think the difference is.
Why do you suppose a guy like Marquez can ping pong off of other riders, dismount his own teammate and still be cheered all the way to the title while Vettel ignores Multi 21 and he’s castigated as arrogant, impetuous and a boorish brat worthy of boos and jeers at each podium ceremony. If it has more to do with fan frustration over the current state of F1, I would offer that MotoGp is not experiencing the halcyon days either with many fans upset with that series as well. Just food for thought, it was the first thing that popped in my head as I watched Marquez win and the fans go crazy.