Man of the year: Marc Marquez – An uninspiring choice, yes, but it really couldn’t be anyone else. His third premier class triumph, enough to draw him alongside all-time greats Roberts Senior, Rainey and Lorenzo, owed as much to his ability to rally those around him and that unshakable will to win, as it did to that jaw-dropping talent. In short, the 2016 RC213V was a dog at the opening race. But Marquez did what he failed to do a year before: collect points when wins weren’t achievable. The results spoke for themselves. To wrap the title up with three races to spare while Lorenzo, Rossi and Yamaha were operating at the sum of their respective powers made this Marquez’s finest achievement to date.
Race of the year: Mugello, MotoGP race – Free practice and qualifying told us this would be a five-way shootout for the win. In the end we had to make do with two, as luck ran out for Rossi (blown engine) and Viñales (electronics fault) while Iannone fluffed his lines at the start. Not to worry though, for Lorenzo and Marquez served up a vintage last lap. Four changes of the lead, the last of which coming approximately five metres before the line, gave Lorenzo the edge by 0.19s. Deserved for the audacious overtake attempt at the final right-left chicane alone. Who says Jorge can’t hold his own in a proper dust up?
Pass of the year: Cal Crutchlow, Silverstone – The British Grand Prix was rife for overtaking. Eugene Laverty’s three-in-one on the first lap at Vale is worth a mention. As is Rossi and Marquez’s tough but fair fairing bashing mid-race. But we’ll settle for Crutchlow’s brilliantly aggressive, agile move under Marquez at Woodcote in a wonderful battle for second. Marquez’s subsequent scrambling to get past the Englishman showed a man who knew he had been done at his own game.
The Award for Cherubic Innocence: Andrea Iannone – In most years one act of defiance would be enough to claim such an award. But in 2016, Iannone took the casual shrug and angelic ‘Who, me?’ expression to another level. Be it in his reaction to torpedoing Lorenzo in Barcelona, to deriding team-mate Dovizioso’s neck injury at Mugello. There was his decision to diss Ducati’s celebration party in Austria [and riling Eugene Laverty in practice! – ED]. And there was a video of him breaking into his own car with a golf club too. Not to mention deciding against returning from injury in Australia, much to the frustration of factory bosses He then ended it all with a sensational podium at Valencia, just for the hell of it. Butter wouldn’t melt, as they say.
The ‘did he just really do that?’ award: Marc Marquez, Brno – ‘The new Michelin front is so sensitive’, they said. ‘Once you lose it there’s no coming back.’ So how then did Marquez continue to repeatedly save front-end moments on his knee? Only he knows. The moment on Friday at Brno stands out. Entering turn 13, the front folds. Leant over at 67.5 degrees, repeated jabs with elbow and knee eventually push him upright, despite trailing for several metres. “I can stand the bike a bit but the front was still closing,” he explains. “So I was there with the knee pushing on and on. Finally I was able to save it.” Said like that, it all sounds rather easy.
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