Hitting the Apex Page #11

Swimming in a fish bowl

Year after year

Running over the same old ground

Have we found the same old fears?

Wish you were here

It was hard to imagine

people would miss Marco so much.

He really has left a deep mark.

It makes you proud and a little sad.

People's heroes are

the sportsmen that people want to be.

And people wanted to be

Marco Simoncelli.

Not because he won a MotoGP race.

But because

he was just cool, quirky, different,

shunned the society of MotoGP,

stood his own ground.

He said, "I'm gonna do it my way."

But, he's not here

and it's just horrible.

It was a horrible, horrible day.

Five races to go.

125 points on the table.

Pedrosa and Lorenzo were still

in with a chance of the title.

Dani Pedrosa was finally back

to full fitness.

It was his birthday.

There are five races left.

So there is no more time for anything.

You have to put it all on the table

and go for it.

You have to have some good luck.

Pedrosa is all over

the rear of Marc Marquez now.

And Pedrosa is through

and into second place.

He's good and determined.

The strongest we've seen Dani Pedrosa

certainly since that crash in Germany.

This is a race he really has to win.

Marquez is going to get very close.

He's going to have

to pick the bike up.

You could see that a mile off.

And Pedrosa has gone down!

Dani Pedrosa has gone!

Goodbye, world championship 2013

for Dani Pedrosa.

Pedrosa is hurting.

He was putting

all the pressure on Lorenzo.

Marquez had to run it wide as well.

Did they actually touch?

I was leaning and I only felt "clack"

on my rear tire.

I thought he'd touched my exhaust pipe.

After that, I don't remember much.

On the rear of the Honda

there is a wheel speed sensor,

which is part

of the traction-control system.

The electronic system

contours the power delivery.

Without it, the bike is unrideable.

Some part of Marquez's machine

hit and severed the cable

connecting the sensor to the system

instantly disabling

Pedrosa's traction control.

It was the slightest possible touch.

But it carried a knockout punch.

When he opened the throttle

at the exit of the corner,

the engine delivered a massive hit

of power to the rear wheel.

He's done it again.

In front of the home crowd.

He's got one hand now

on that world championship trophy.

Of course he can make mistakes.

We've seen mistakes from him today.

He just seems to be able

to ride his luck all the time.

After the Aragon incident,

Marquez found himself

back in front of Race Direction.

Another two-point penalty would see him

starting the next race from the back.

Good morning. Hi Marc, how are you?

- Fine, thanks.

- What are you expecting?

I don't know. We'll see.

It's a formal hearing.

There's four members of race direction.

We work as a group,

the four of us have a hearing,

the rider gets called in

with his team representative.

We explain what he's there for.

We listen to both sides of the story

and then make a decision.

For Marc Marquez,

we have added one penalty point

to his total for the 2013 season

due to irresponsible riding.

No rider wants to be told

they're doing the wrong thing.

They always have an opinion

that's not the same as ours.

And he can be quite angry.

More and more these days

he understands

why we're saying what we're saying.

Like I said,

for me it was a racing incident.

Just that. It was very bad luck

that I hit the cable.

But if I hadn't hit the cable,

nobody would have realized I hit Dani.

The limit is when one guy

puts in danger other guys.

This is the limit.

It was a very light touch.

But fine, they obviously

wanted to give me a point.

And as riders we have to respect that.

Many of us could be more aggressive.

And many of us could be

touching others like this.

But we don't do it.

A lot of people complain,

but it's my riding style.

If I don't ride like that,

I cannot be fast.

Sometimes I try to change.

I try to be smooth,

but in the end if I'm concentrating,

if I want to push,

I need to be like that.

Dani Pedrosa had the

satisfaction of beating Marc Marquez

in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

It's a great feeling, this one.

But Marquez beat Lorenzo for

second extending his lead to 43 points.

He could clinch the world title

the following week in Australia.

Marc Marquez

has been black-flagged.

Honda have made

one massive, massive mistake.

The Phillip Island track

had been re-surfaced

since the last MotoGP race there.

In the practice sessions,

it turned out that the new asphalt

gave so much grip that the tires

couldn't handle more than a few laps.

The rubber would disintegrate

over full race distance.

Race Direction ordered the teams

to make a pit stop during the race

when the riders would switch

to their second bike with fresh tires.

Any rider completing more than ten laps

would be penalized.

It was a new rule

and I was very worried

that Jorge would miss the board.

So, I went to Race Direction to ask

if he missed the board, what then?

Black flag, 100%.

They've got to come in!

Marquez has stayed out there!

Marquez has stayed out on the track!

I do not believe this!

But surely,

Marquez has gone a lap too far!

Marquez's team

was looking for an advantage.

An extra lap with a clear track and

a light fuel load could provide that.

All we know is that part of the team

had made a mistake

on the counting down of the laps.

A part of the team knew already from,

"Hey, ten! He has to come in."

And part didn't know, they thought,

"No, no. It's the end of lap ten."

So, they were a little bit confused.

It's embarrassing for us.

It was a mistake that was made.

We take it and move on. I hope it

doesn't affect the championship.

If it does, it'll come back

and haunt us and that's the way it is.

- How many fingers do you see here?

- I see ten.

Then you can work for Repsol Honda.

Jorge Lorenzo

won the Australian Grand Prix

from Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi.

There were two races to go.

Fifty points on the table.

Just 18 points

between Lorenzo and Marquez.

Then a typhoon hit Japan

the week of the grand prix.

The weather wiped out practice

on Friday and Saturday.

Everything, practice and the race,

happened on Sunday.

Marquez had a single session to

figure out the track on a MotoGP bike.

And to endure

his 15th crash of the season.

If he were to win the race

today and Lorenzo were to be third,

then he would be the youngest ever

world champion in the premiere class.

Jorge Lorenzo had other ideas.

He led the race from start to finish.

Marc Marquez

thought, hoped, prayed,

he'd capture the world title.

But it's not gonna happen

here in Japan.

A classic ride from the world champion

Jorge Lorenzo who wins here in Japan.

Thirteen points between them.

It was down

to the final race in Valencia.

Two things had to happen

for Jorge Lorenzo to take the title.

He had to win the race

and Marc Marquez

had to finish fifth or lower.

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