MotoGP: The Most Memorable Moments of the Decade – Part 1

In this collaboration, Ryan Lilly and Nat Jarvis look at the most memorable moments of the decade, we look at the good times, the bad times and the somewhat bizarre moments.

1) Sepang 2015: Valentino Rossi’s and Marc Marquez’s friendship comes to an abrupt end

Sepang 2015 will go down in history as one of the most defining moments ever. Just a week previous we were treated to one of the best battle royales ever, with Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo, and Andrea Iannone slugging it out in one of the most aggressive race’s we had ever seen at the time.

In the press conference at Sepang, Valentino Rossi accused Marc Marquez of aiding championship rival Jorge Lorenzo saying, “His target is not only to win the race but to, take points from me to help Jorge to win the championship.” 

The race between Rossi and Marquez was one for the history books with the pair banging fairings nearly every other corner, with Rossi gesticulating to Marquez after nearly losing the front and some of the hardest moves you will ever see in a Grand Prix motorcycle race. This all changed on lap 7, going into turn 13-14 Valentino Rossi ran Marc Marquez out of track making contact and well… the rest is history. As a result, Valentino Rossi needed 3rd position if Jorge Lorenzo won in Valencia to take the title but as a result of the infamous “Sepang clash” Rossi had to start last on the grid an made a phenomenal come back to fourth place but it wasn’t enough for the 2015 title.

“His Target is not only to win the race, but take points from me to help Jorge win the championship” – Valentino Rossi, Sepang Press Conference 2015

2) Silverstone 2019 – Rapid Rins Outfoxes Marc Marquez

Silverstone 2019 was an absolute classic encounter with untypically hot British weather and an epically close race between Marc Marquez and Alex Rins. Marquez started from pole and as the race begun it didn’t take long for the carnage to ensue with Rins losing the rear causing Fabio Quartararo to high side and Andrea Dovizioso spectacularly launch his Ducati into the air at the first corner.

Alex Rins spent most of the race stalking Marc Marquez, albeit with a few hairy moments for both men, as tyre wear started to take its toll in the hot British summer temperatures.

On the penultimate lap, Rins was on Marc Marquez’s back wheel, with the favourite overtaking spots into corners like Stowe, Vale, Village, The Loop and Brooklands. At the Loop Marquez went defensive, enough to stop Rins getting past at Brooklands. Marquez went over defensive on his Repsol Honda into Luffield giving Rins better drive, and coming through Woodcote Rins amazingly pinched Marquez by 0.013 of a second. As you can imagine the Brits love an underdog and despite the crowd being the lowest it has been for some years, you could hear every single one of the spectators.

3) Valentino Rossi’s Ducati nightmare

At the end of 2010, in Valencia, Valentino Rossi got his first ride on-board a factory Ducati after 7 seasons with the Factory Yamaha squad and clear fractures between himself and Jorge Lorenzo throughout 2009 and 2010 pushed Rossi to re-evaluated his situation for 2011 and 2012 and decided to sign with the Factory Ducati squad, the Italian dream team was born, or was it?

The entire 2-year stint was near enough a disaster for the 9-time world champion with constant complaints that there was no feeling in the front, in fact it was so bad that Valentino Rossi crashed more in two seasons at Ducati than he did his entire career prior to 2011 combined (1996 – 2010).

It wasn’t all doom and gloom at Ducati taking 3 podiums in his time at the Bologna factory, securing third position at Le Mans in 2011 and one year later second position in wet conditions much like Jerez 2011 when Valentino Rossi took out Casey Stoner who of course made one of the strongest comments ever made.

“Your ambition outweighed your talent” – Casey Stoner Jerez 2011 to Valentino Rossi.

But the pinnacle of Rossi’s stint at Ducati has to be Misano 2012 in the glorious Rimini sunshine the Italian showed he still had some magic left to give the sport, pole man Dani Pedrosa had an issue on the grid and had to start from last and was then taken out by Hector Barbera into Quecha, Rossi got into second early on and never looked back, giving millions of Italians hope that the man they’ve idolised over the last decade may be able to challenge for titles on his return to Yamaha.

4) Simoncelli’s Catalunya Pole

Catalunya 2011 marked Marco Simoncelli’s first-ever pole, pretty common for a fast rookie right? Well, it’s the circumstances from the race before in Le Mans where Simoncelli collided with Dani Pedrosa, knocking the Spaniard off and causing him to break his collar bone (again).

The nightmare after this got so bad that Simoncelli was receiving death threats from Spanish fans, so much so that coming into the next round at Barcelona, Dorna had to organise security for the young Italian.

On Saturday afternoon Marco Simoncelli snatched an unpopular pole position in front of the Spanish crowd, with boo’s echoing the circuit. How would Simoncelli react? Showboating, of course, the young Italian wheelied and waved until his heart was content, and this for me showed his strength of character both on and off of the track.

5) 9 Different winners in a season, 8 different winners in a row

2016 was simply an incredible season it was the first year with new rules, Michelin tyre’s instead of Bridgestone and Magneti Marelli ECU’s instead of the teams own in-house software, I don’t think anyone could predict what would happen next.

It started in Mugello where Jorge Lorenzo pipped Marc Marquez to victory on the line. The next 7 races after would miraculously produce another seven different winners, which saw 4 first time winners including; Jack Miller at Assen, Andrea Iannone in Austria Cal Crutchlow at Brno and Maverick Vinales at Silverstone.

Later on,in the year, Andrea Dovizioso, who was clearly devastated by the fact team-mate Andrea Iannone took Ducati’s first victory since Phillip Island 2010 off the hands of Casey Stoner, won in Sepang. It sealed his first victory since Donnington 2009, and making it half of the Grand Prix’s in 2016 being won by different people.

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