At the moment, the situation is pretty much clear that the title fight is between defending champion Jorge Lorenzo of Yamaha and Honda’s Marc Marquez. Both riders have been fantastic throughout the season and have delivered some exciting races for their fans. The former of the two has managed to win seven races, the most by any rider this season. On the other hand, Marquez has also been up there with six victories to his name. Despite winning one less event than his title contender, the young Spaniard is currently in the lead by 13 points.
This margin seems good enough at the moment, but there is no certainty, especially if you have witness the action in the past few races. This gap was a big one at one stage and Honda’s superiority in terms of race pace meant that their rider would end up sealing his maiden title way before the final encounter in Valencia. However, one mistake from the team made things interesting for the Moto GP fans. During the Australian GP, the riders suffered heavy tire degradation, which forced the organizers to make some changes, citing safety.
One of those changes saw the race length to be shortened whereas the other required the riders to make a mandatory pit stop for a bike change. Since Honda got late in reacting to this rule, Marquez was black flagged, getting no points from the race. The debutant rider could have easily won that event, meaning that his difference to Lorenzo would have been enough to make his champion by now. However, he came out with no points in Australia and failed to win in Japan, leaving him under immense pressure at the moment.
One thing is certain, Marquez needs to finish the next race otherwise he will end up losing the chance of becoming the youngest Moto GP champion ever. His motorbike is strong enough to earn him a podium, which will be more than enough for him to seal the title. However, he might get a bit too aggressive and think of wrapping things up in style with a victory. Although there is no issue in doing that, yet we have seen that the Spaniard has been over the top on a few occasions this season.
If he does anything silly, his race might be over and with it his title chances will also end. Let’s assume that the 20-year-old does not do anything amateur in the race and stays within his limits, he will have to finish no less than fourth. This way, he will earn 13 points, which means that Lorenzo will be unable to defend his championship even after finishing first on the eighth time this year. From what we have seen in the season so far, the Honda's and Yamahas have been superior compared to all of the other teams.
As a result, one thing is quite certain that their riders will always finish in top-four unless something unusual happens. Above that, veteran rider Valentino Rossi has been the weakest of the four, so he is always expected to be down in that list. Therefore, it is quite clear that Marquez only needs to finish this race without breaching any rules in order to secure the title. He should try winning it only if he gets a clear chance of overtaking otherwise he need to keep his cool.
From Lorenzo’s perspective, things are pretty much straightforward. He will have to win the race and hope that something goes wrong with the championship leader like the past few events. Surprisingly, the points difference between Honda and Yamaha is also 13, which means that both the Riders’ and Manufacturer’s title will be decided in Valencia.
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