As MotoGP™ prepares for the flyaways and the last four rounds of the season, history and numbers say Championship leader Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) is the favourite.
Marquez is ahead of Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) by 16 points, and Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) by 28 – with only four races to go.
Two changes of leader
With the current scoring system – since 1993 – there are only two occasions when the eventual Champion wasn’t the points leader with four races remaining:
1998: Max Biaggi was ahead of Mick Doohan by four points after Brno – but in the end, the Australian won by a stunning 52-point margin.
2015: Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) left the Aragon GP with 263 points – 14 more than then-teammate and key title rival Jorge Lorenzo. By the flag in Valencia, Lorenzo took the title by five points.
The man in third never wins…
As much as the numbers smile on Marquez, they don’t make good reading for Viñales. The man in third by this point has never taken the title.
Marquez: leader = winner
Whenever he has been leading the Championship heading into the flyaways, Marquez has always won the title. When ahead, Marquez has only lost the lead in the Championship once – this season, when he retired at Silverstone following a mechanical problem.