P118
CN
III TRACKSIDE
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
T
hey say one should
always expect the unex-
pected. Nobody really
expected Marc Marquez to
secure his third title at Motegi.
Should he win the race and
then score no further points,
he would need for Valentino
Rossi to finish 15th or worse
(if 14th and winner of the rest
of the races, they would tie on
points and number of wins, but
Rossi would have more second
places), and Jorge Lorenzo to
finish lower than fourth.
Only one of those things hap-
pened. Marquez won the race
most convincingly.
And both of his rivals crashed
out. Game over. Whether any-
one expected it or not.
The phrase can, however,
also be inverted. And needs to
be, for a talent like Marquez.
The way things stand, if we are
to retain our interest for the next
couple of years, we need to un-
expect the expected.
We need to expect him not
to win, so we can be surprised
when he does.
Marquez arrived as a callow
youth in 2013, with a pair of
dominant smaller-class titles in
his cabinet, his 21st birthday
still almost a year away, and
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
