Sunday, October 28, 2012 Marc Márquez has become Phillip Island this weekend in the fifth Spanish to win the world title of the intermediate category, and the first to achieve it with a Suter chassis. Marc Márquez played the 125cc Spanish championship in 2007 and finished in the 8th final position. His performance did not go unnoticed to the people in charge of the Repsol KTM 125cc team, who made him debut on the world stage at the controls of a machine of the Austrian factory in 2008. With the advice of his mentor, the former 125cc World Champion Emilio Alzamora, Márquez faced the 2009 campaign as official pilot of KTM. Although he only took the podium once, he was noted qualifying 9 times in the top 10 and finished the season in 8th place before all his talent surfaced completely in 2010, a course in which he added 10 wins and 12 poles in his road to the title of the 125cc World Championship. The driver of Cervera (Lleida) reached the category of Moto2 in 2011 and had a difficult start to go to the ground in the first two races. However, a first win at Le Mans opened the way for another six wins that catapulted him into a tight title fight with Stefan Bradl. His fall during the practice of the Malaysian Grand Prix ended dramatically with his aspirations and abruptly ended his season. The vision problems that had arisen as a consequence of that accident truncated his pre-season, but the Spaniard showed a good rhythm in the final test of Jerez, which placed him instantly as one of the favorites for the 2012 title. And Márquez did not disappoint, since that got the victory in the first race of the season in Qatar, where he made clear his intentions with some risky and controversial overtaking. A first abandonment by falling on the wet asphalt of Le Mans gave hope to his rivals, and the fight with his rival and compatriot Pol Espargaró led to a continuous duel of talents. A collision between the two in his home race, in Catalunya, ended with Espargaró out of the race and with Marquez adding some valuable points, and the fight for the title began to lean heavily in favor of the now proclaimed champion. A total of eight victories, including the one achieved in Japan after climbing from the tail of the peloton, and a total of 13 podiums, have catapulted the Lleida driver to the Moto2 ™ World Championship title, the best culmination to his two years of brilliant career in the new intermediate class before making the jump to the Repsol Honda team in the MotoGP ™ premier class next season. Some relevant facts about Marc Márquez: With 19 years and 254 days, he is the third youngest driver of all time to win the world title in the intermediate category. He is the fifth Spanish driver to win the world title of the intermediate category, joining: Sito Pons (1988 and 1989), Dani Pedrosa (2004 and 2005), Jorge Lorenzo (2006 and 2007) and Toni Elías (2010). Márquez is the first driver to claim the Moto2 world title with a Suter chassis. The Cervera driver has already added eight victories in the 2012 season, which is a new record of wins in a single season of the Moto2 category. With 25 Grand Prix victories, Márquez has won more Grand Prizes than any other driver in the history of this sport while still a teenager. Biography: Date of birth: 2/17/93 Place of birth: Cervera, Spain First Grand Prix: QAT – 2008 – 125cc First Pole Position: FRA – 2009 – 125cc First Podium: GBR – 2008 – 125cc First victory GP: ITA – 2010 – 125cc Grand Prix entries: 77 Grand Prix victories: 25 Podiums: 38 Pole Positions: 28 Fast laps in the race: 15 World Championship victories: 1x 125cc, 1 xMoto2 World Championship career: 2008: Championship of the World 125cc – 13th position on a KTM, 13 participations, 63 points 2009: World Championship 125cc – 8th position on KTM, 16 participations, 94 points 2010: World Championship 125cc – 1st position on Derby, 17 participations, 310 points 2011 : Moto2 ™ World Championship – 2nd position on Suter, 13 participations, 251 points 2012: Moto2 ™ World Championship – 1st position on Suter, 16 participations, 299 points. Motogp.com
