Honda win 20th premier-class Constructors title

 

"This has been a very exciting season for our HRC Factory outfit, the Repsol Honda Team, with both Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa fighting for the title and challenging in every race possible," commented Tetsuo Suzuki, HRC President and Senior Managing Officer and Director of Honda R&D co.,ltd. "We, as Honda, celebrate our third successive Constructors Championship and 62nd in our history which I am very proud of, this is a wonderful accomplishment."

 

"My congratulations go to our rookie Marc on an outstanding performance and his achievement in winning the MotoGP World Championship in his maiden season, breaking many records along the way. Dani was unfortunate to sustain an injury in Sachsenring and thus making the remainder of his season very hard to close the gap I&r squo;m sure he will be ready to fight again in 2014!"

 

"I would like to thank everyone at Honda and HRC and all our sponsors and technical partners for their valuable support and input this season, also to all our fans around the World, we appreciate all your support!"

 

Those 20 successes encompass a whole range of Honda machinery, starting out with the mighty air-cooled four-cylinder RC181 that beat MV Agusta to the constructors' crown in 1966.

 

Following Honda's long absence from Grand Prix racing, it didn't take long for the company to get back on top with its new range of two-stroke race bikes during the 1980s. In 1983 Honda took the prize with its superb three-cylinder NS500 and followed that by winning the 1984 title with the NS500 and the all-new NSR500 V4. In 1985 Honda secured its first premier-class constructors' hat-trick with a new version of the NSR500.

 

The NSR500 went on to become the most successful racing machine in the history of Grand Prix racing, also taking the constructors' championship in 1989, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001.

 

When motorcycle Grand Prix racing began its new four-stroke era in 2002, Honda was immediately successful with its fabulous 990cc RC211V. The V5 took a hat-trick of titles in 2002, 2003 and 2004 andfollowed that with a fourth success in 2006, before MotoGP was reduced to 800cc machinery.

 

Honda won its first 800cc constructors' championship in 2011, with the four-cylinder RC212V. The following year, when MotoGP went to full 1000cc machines, Honda was once again on top and repeated the success this year with the RC213V thanks to brilliant riding by Marquez and team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V).

 

Across all classes, Honda have won a total of 62 constructors' crowns and 667 Grand Prix victories, including 249 wins in the premier category. All three of these numbers are records in the sport.