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The 2013 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 65th Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme Road racing World Championship season. Jorge Lorenzo started the season as the defending World Champion, while Honda was the defending Manufacturers' Champion. Moto2 champion Marc Márquez joined the MotoGP grid with Repsol Honda and Moto3 champion Sandro Cortese entered Moto2, with Intact GP.
Contents
- MotoGP
- Moto2
- Moto3
- 2013 Grand Prix season calendar
- Participants
- Rider changes
- Team changes
- Championship standings
- Manufacturers standings
- References
The three championships were each won by Spanish riders, with Márquez winning in MotoGP, Pol Espargaró winning in Moto2, and Maverick Viñales winning in Moto3. Spanish riders dominated the season overall, with 47 of the 52 races across all classes won by a Spanish rider. Of the five non-Spanish victories, three came from Moto2 championship runner-up Scott Redding, and one each from Moto2 front-runner Mika Kallio – his first in the class, in the Czech Republic – and MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi, who took his first premier class victory since 2010 at the Dutch TT.
MotoGP
In the premier MotoGP class, Lorenzo, along with Repsol Honda team-mates Marc Márquez and Dani Pedrosa battled it out for most of the season in regards to the championship battle. Lorenzo won the opening race of the season in Qatar, before rookie Márquez became the youngest premier class winner, as he claimed victory in the inaugural Grand Prix of the Americas in Texas. Pedrosa took back-to-back victories at Jerez – where Márquez and Lorenzo battled for second place, clashing at the final corner – and Le Mans, before Lorenzo did likewise at Mugello, and Catalunya; at the former, Márquez retired from the race after crashing out of second place. At Assen, Lorenzo crashed during free practice and fractured his collarbone, and after emergency surgery and initial reports that he would not take part for the rest of the weekend, he competed in the race and finished fifth. Márquez and Pedrosa finished second and fourth respectively, as Valentino Rossi took his first race victory since 2010. Márquez then won the next four races, starting at the Sachsenring, where both Lorenzo and Pedrosa were sidelined with injuries; Lorenzo with a recurrence of his Assen injury after crashing in free practice once again, while Pedrosa was ruled out with low blood pressure, stemming from a separate incident.
After two more victories for Lorenzo at Silverstone, and Misano, Márquez and Pedrosa collided at the Aragon Grand Prix, where a slight touch caused a sensor on Pedrosa's bike to tear and cut the traction control system. Márquez went on to beat Lorenzo to victory, and after Pedrosa won in Malaysia, Márquez held a 43-point lead in the championship with three races to go. However, a disqualification in Australia, as well as Lorenzo winning both in Australia and Japan reduced that margin to thirteen, ahead of the final race in Valencia; the first final race title decider since 2006. After battling Pedrosa and Lorenzo in the early stages of the race, Márquez finished third in the race to become the youngest premier class champion, beating Freddie Spencer's record from 1983. As well as this, Márquez became the first rookie since Kenny Roberts in 1978 to win the championship in their début season, and only the fourth rider to win world championships in three different categories after Mike Hailwood, Phil Read and Rossi. Pedrosa's second place, behind Lorenzo, was enough for Honda to clinch the constructors' championship.
Moto2
In Moto2, Pol Espargaró became champion in the class, after overhauling Scott Redding towards the end of the season. With six race victories, Espargaró won the championship by 40 points ahead of Redding, who won three races, with third place going to Esteve Rabat, a three-time race winner. Nicolás Terol, who finished seventh, was another three-time race winner, with other victories taken by Mika Kallio (fourth) and Jordi Torres, who was tenth in the championship. In the constructors' championship, Kalex won thirteen of the seventeen races to win the title by almost 100 points from Suter, who won the other four races.
Moto3
In Moto3, the championship was dominated by three Spanish riders, all riding KTM machinery. Like the premier class, there was a final race title decider between Ajo Motorsport's Luis Salom, Estrella Galicia 0,0's Álex Rins and Maverick Viñales of Team Calvo; if any rider of the three won the race, they finished as the champion, regardless of the other results. After Salom crashed out early in the race, Rins and Viñales battled at the front, with Viñales ultimately coming out as the victor and champion, with Rins being passed for second place on the line by Jonas Folger. With Salom only making it back up to fourteenth, Rins finished as runner-up ahead of Salom. With every race won by a KTM rider – seven wins for Salom, six for Rins, three for Viñales and one for Álex Márquez, the team-mate of Rins, at Motegi – the marque was comfortably the winners of the constructors' championship, scoring more than double the points of the next placed constructor, Kalex KTM.
2013 Grand Prix season calendar
The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme released a 19-race provisional calendar on 19 September 2012. On 23 November 2012, the calendar was updated following confirmation that the return of the Argentine Grand Prix would be postponed to 2014. The Grand Prix of the Americas held at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, United States, replaces the Portuguese Grand Prix, which had been run at Estoril since 2000. The United States will host three races, the other two being the United States Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the Indianapolis Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Notes:
Participants
Rider changes
Team changes
Championship standings
Points are awarded to the top fifteen finishers. A rider has to finish the race to earn points.
Manufacturers' standings
Participants
Rider changes
Participants
Notes: