Valentino Rossi’s 27-year record under threat from Marc Marquez’s protege

A Valentino Rossi record which has stood for 27 years could be broken this year.

David Alonso won his 10th Moto3 race of the season in Japan at Motegi.

It earned Alonso the Moto3 championship, to become Colombia’s first-ever motorcycle grand prix champion.

Alonso is now one victory short of matching Rossi’s tally of 11 wins in the class. He has four more races to match or break the record.

Fausto Gresini, Marc Marquez and Joan Mir also have 10 wins in a lightweight class.

Rossi set his record in 1997 when he won the 125cc class, riding an Aprilia RS125 for the Nastro Azzurro Aprilia team.

It is significant that Rossi won 11 out of a total of 15 races in that season, whereas Alonso has more opportunities this year.

Alonso is a protege of Marc Marquez, having spent time training together.

Marquez has also accepted every chance to talk up his young friend’s potential.

Alonso said in Japan that Marquez’s advice was to win championships rather than reaching MotoGP without the experience of winning.

“He’s an emotional character,” TNT Sports’ Neil Hodgson said about Alonso.

“He said that he looked at himself in the mirror and burst into tears at the prospect of what was coming.

“What he can do in key moments of a race, when the pressure is on…
“We’ve seen people who make mistakes, who push too hard. But he doesn’t. He channels his energy.

“It turns into incredible focus and he can calculate, at high-speed, his decisions in races like a veteran of 10 years older.

“His race craft is as good as I’ve seen.

"It's Valentino-esque, his personality. He is charismatic."