Hitting the Apex Page #6

after the season he's put together.

He's behind the safety car, isn't he?

Please, no problem for Dani Pedrosa

because we want to see him and Lorenzo

fight it out for the title.

Will Dani Pedrosa get there?

Here he comes.

He's gonna thread his way through.

No, he's not!

He's starting

from the back of the grid.

You cannot believe the misfortune.

It's Lorenzo leading, Rossi in second,

Bradl in third.

Dani Pedrosa has everything to do

on these first couple of laps.

There was some problem

with the front brake.

They managed to get it cleared.

It was too late for Pedrosa

to catch the safety car, that's why

he had to start from back of the grid.

Lorenzo's cleared off at the front.

They come towards La Quercia.

27 laps in this race.

And that's Pedrosa being taken down!

He's been taken down by Hector Barbera.

And that could be

the championship right there.

I cannot believe he can't get through

a season without something...

Ah, it's just awful.

Casey Stoner was back

in time for his home race.

They warned me

when I came back prematurely,

"If you crash

and hurt your foot again,

you're probably never gonna walk

normally again."

He took the 45th

and final victory of his MotoGP career.

But it was Jorge Lorenzo's day.

His second MotoGP world title

in three years.

We're gonna watch

Lorenzo come across the line and win!

Two weeks after

his victory in Australia,

Casey Stoner rode his final MotoGP race

at Valencia, taking third place.

Thank you, Casey Stoner

for what you've given us.

It's the end of an amazing career.

An amazing rider as well in MotoGP.

This left a Honda

race machine looking for a rider.

The Honda Racing Corporation had known

for a while who that rider would be.

Several years ago, I thought

maybe he's able

to ride a MotoGP machine.

In 2010, Marc Marquez

was racing in the junior class

and fighting for the title.

No sign of any nerves from

anybody on the team or Marc Marquez.

He is one mature 17-year-old rider

and I'm sure he already has

a game plan for this race.

Instead of winning,

he should be going to school.

On the warm-up lap,

the track was completely dry.

Only the last corner

was a little bit wet.

When I arrived there, I feel normal.

I didn't see the water.

See Marquez is going fairly quick.

He's pushing to see how much grip

there is... And he's gone!

This could be massive

for the championship.

That's huge.

And he's broken the front fairing.

Can he get the bike back out there?

This could be where the championship

gets decided.

A stupid crash.

You lose all the work in one year.

He's going in, pointing.

He's going back into pit lane.

He had a chance of the championship

and he'd just thrown it away.

There was some panic there,

me and also the team.

He needs the handlebars

working on. There's Juli, his father.

They're saying he's got to go out.

Telling him to get back out there.

Panic stations at the Ajo Derbi team.

The people that flocked

to that motorcycle to help him

get a chance of doing the grand prix,

they saw that he was something special.

In nine minutes,

they repaired the bike.

Marquez, he will start

from the back of the grid.

Nine laps of the Estoril circuit,

could it determine

the outcome of the championship?

Marquez has made a cracking start

from the back of the grid.

Already around the outside,

he goes through.

He knows he has to make a good start.

From seventeenth to fourth.

Marquez is through on Jonas Folger,

now on Pol Espargaro.

This is where he's gonna make his move.

One lap to go.

The most important lap

in the 17-year-old's life.

There he goes. Up the inside

of Nico Terol, Marquez leads the way.

If Marquez wins this

and he's in second place...

Here he comes into turn three.

Nico Terol back into the lead.

Wide on exit for Terol.

Marquez back in front.

Marquez is very, very fast

through the Parabolica.

He's chasing his tenth

grand prix victory of the season.

This could be the ride

that gets the world title.

Marc Marquez wins here in Portugal!

I won the title.

We cannot repeat that. It's impossible.

That moment, that situation.

Anything that could have

happened to Marc Marquez did happen.

He came back, showed everything today

that's needed to be a world champion.

He'd never won

a grand prix before 2010.

He won his first grand prix in 2010

midway through the season.

He won a load on the trot

and he won the championship.

Grown men cried in that garage.

They could not believe it.

Look at Emilio Alzamora.

He's aged about ten years in nine laps.

Today belongs to

the 17-year-old Spaniard Marc Marquez.

Where will this end?

This is the start

of a very, very exciting career.

Marquez moved up to Moto2

in 2011 and went on the attack.

He did everything all the great riders

before him had done, only more.

He crashed out

of the first three races,

then won seven of the next ten.

It's going to be Marc

Marquez who wins back to back races.

He was leading the Moto2

championship with three races to go.

His star was rising faster than Rossi,

Lorenzo and Stoner's before him.

Only Pedrosa had won the intermediate

class at his first attempt.

Marquez's determination to push

the limits of his bike and tires,

to find ways to go even faster,

saw him running at race pace

every second that he could

in the practice sessions.

At the end of practice

before the Australian race,

after the flag had come out

to end the session,

and when the other riders

were slowing down,

Marquez was still going flat out.

He was sent to the back of the grid

in punishment.

It didn't make much difference.

Watching Marquez from the back.

He's flown up the middle of that field.

So it hasn't mattered one bit,

has it really?

Who will be in third place? It's gonna

be Marc Marquez in third place.

Starting from the back of the grid.

He's ridden through to third place.

Marquez is a very, very

happy 18-year-old.

A week later,

at the penultimate race in Malaysia,

Marquez crashed hard in practice.

The blow to his head damaged

a branch of the optic nerve.

Mark could see like this,

it was when he did this

that there was a problem.

If he can't recover 100%,

he cannot do this sport.

Because they're always

looking up like this.

It's a frightening injury.

Marquez watched with one eye

as the Moto2 championship

slipped away to Stefan Bradl.

I was suffering. He's my son.

They say there may be complications.

Marquez ended the year

not knowing

if he would ever race again.

Marc is very positive, so are

the family and the people around him.

He was the one that handled it best.

He must have had his moments

but he never showed it.

It's the kind of person he is.

"Don't worry, give it time,

it'll get better."

It was micro surgery.

They changed

the angle of the muscle slightly.

Now he sees perfectly.

He's cured.

Oh, and they're both

running wide. Luthi follows Espergaro.

Marc Marquez takes over the front.

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