Yamaha full of admiration for ‘extraordinary’ Marc Marquez

Yamaha has hailed the stunning performances of rookie sensation and new Honda foe Marc Marquez as ‘extraordinary’ in 2013.

Many expected the reigning Moto2 world champion to spend as much time in the gravel as he has on the podium.

But aside from a bodywork bashing weekend in Mugello, the Repsol Honda rider has fallen out of just one race in 12 so far in a barn-storming debut campaign that has seen him collect five wins to lead the series by a commanding 30-points heading to the forthcoming Misano round.

The latest in a series of outstanding performances from Marquez came only last weekend when he came within 0.1s of defeating reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo in a classis British Grand Prix – less than four hours after dislocating his left shoulder in a huge warm-up crash.

The 20-year-old has surprised himself with his record-breaking exploits and his standout performances have certainly surprised rivals Yamaha.

Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis told MCN:” Marc is one of those exceptional riders that comes along from time to time and he has exceeded everyone’s expectations. We knew he would be good but we thought he would probably make more errors than he has. At Mugello it seemed to be the moment of a reality check with four crashes in one weekend but then Marc recovered remarkably.

That was his only weird weekend and he has been extraordinary since then. It is bizarre that everyone thought that Marc would be ragged and possibly get injured like Jorge did in his rookie year, but he is the one looking incredibly good. There’s no doubt he has a long career ahead of him and he will be a formidable competitor.”