On November 17, 2019, Marc Márquez won the Valencia Grand Prix and thereby won the team title for Repsol Honda , the tenth out of a possible 19 since the creation of this trophy in 2002. The Catalan contributed 420 of the 458 points (91.7%) in a difficult year for what was then his partner, Jorge Lorenzo.
Thus, Honda completed the ‘triple crown’, together with Márquez’s drivers’ title and the constructors’ title. HRC achieved his third consecutive triplet and the fifth in seven years since the man from Lleida landed in MotoGP.
Since that 2013, Honda only finished the season in white in 2015 – the only year that Márquez had been defeated until 2020. Yamaha snatched the riders, constructors and teams titles from him with the pair formed by Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi. In 2016, the #93 regained the crown and incidentally gave the company with the golden wing the brand name, although the tuning fork signature was made with the team name again.
Last year, Márquez’s absence for the entire season after being injured in the first race led HRC to bottom out. The Tokyo brand completed its worst MotoGP campaign since the creation of its current competition division in 1982, closing the year without a win for the first time. The Repsol team finished third from last –something never seen before– and Honda was fifth in the constructors’ category –it had never dropped below third place–, only ahead of Aprilia .
Márquez missed the first two races of 2021 as he was still recovering from the third operation for the fracture of his right humerus and reappeared in the third, in Portimao, to rescue Honda. However, the one from Cervera was far from his best physical condition and it was immediately clear that he was not the one from before the injury. Six months later, the eight-time world champion continues to suffer from discomfort and has only achieved two victories and one podium – all on anti-clockwise circuits, which a priori do not harm him so much.
The Catalan won the last Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, giving HRC one of the few things to celebrate in the last two years. However, the final result mathematically certified the second year in white of the golden wing mark. The drivers’ and constructors’ titles have been ruled out for a long time, with the points that the couple formed by Márquez and Pol Espargaró can add, they can no longer hunt down the Ducati Lenovo , current team leader. Repsol Honda adds 194 points to 351 from Borgo Panigale when there are 135 left to share.
However, Honda’s two blank years are not its worst streak. Between 2007 and 2010 they chained four seasons without any title. The Japanese engineers are already working thinking about 2022 to break this drought and in the last test they put a promising motorcycle with a new concept.
(Click on this link or on the photo to see all of Marc Márquez’s victories)
