Marquez emerges victorious in magical Mugello duel

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez maintained his perfect victory record in 2014 at the Italian Grand Prix, after narrowly beating Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo to the checkered flag at Mugello.
 
Marquez and Lorenzo traded the race lead numerous times in an exciting dogfight at the front of the field, with Marquez squeezing his way past Lorenzo on the entry into turn one on the final lap for the race-winning pass. The battle between the two Spanish stars continued all the way to the finish line with Marquez taking the checkered flag 0.120 seconds ahead of Lorenzo. Rounding out the podium in his three-hundredth Grand Prix appearance was Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi, who carved through the field after starting from tenth on the grid. All riders on the podium used the combination of the medium compound front and rear slicks.
 
Today’s Italian Grand Prix took place under sunny skies, with track temperatures reaching a slightly higher level than recorded yesterday, with a high of 47°C at the start of the race. Race tire choice was practically a carbon-copy of what the riders used during yesterday’s Free Practice 4 session, with all of the riders selecting the medium compound front slick for the race. Rear tire choice for the race was almost evenly split across the field, with twelve of the twenty-three riders selecting the soft compound rear slick, and the remaining eleven riders opting for the medium compound rear slick.
 
Marquez now has 150 championship points and enjoys a fifty-three point lead over Rossi, who moves up to second place in the standings following his third successive podium. Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa now sits third on the championship table and one point adrift of Rossi, after finishing in fourth place at Mugello.
 
Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department
“That was an amazing race between two riders at the peak of their powers. Congratulations to Honda and Marc for taking another victory, and also to Yamaha for their strong showing this weekend with two riders on the podium. Today’s race was a special treat for MotoGP fans around the world and having such a close battle at the front of the field will surely help ensure a large crowd at the next race in Montmelo.”
 
Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport tire Development Department
“Track temperatures today were almost the same as yesterday, which resulted in every rider using their favored tire combination from Saturday’s practice sessions. As expected, the medium compound front slick was the standard choice for the whole grid, and only the soft and medium rear slicks were used by riders today. I am really happy with how our tires performed today, as quite a few riders were able to set their quickest lap in the second half of the race and the whole of the field experiencing little drop off in performance over the twenty-three lap race distance.”
 
Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda – Race Winner
“I think this was the toughest race of the year for me, I struggled particularly in the beginning of the race and Jorge was really strong in the middle of the corner, he was able to keep a strong pace. But then, with the used tire I started to feel better and in the warm-up we made a small change to my gearing which worked very well in the race. I’m very happy for the team as well, as the change they made to my bike helped me to victory. We will enjoy this moment and go now to the next race at my home track ready to fight for another victory.”