SPANISH national low-cost airline Vueling has announced numerous extra flights this summer, increasing frequency and destination choice for 2024.
MotoGP: Minute's silence for Ángel Nieto; Marc Márquez dedicates victory to late legend and roars to top of standings
06/08/2017
HONDA rider Marc Márquez dedicated his win in Brno, Czech Republic today to the late Ángel Nieto, who passed away in hospital this week after a serious road crash.
A minute's silence was held at the start of the MotoGP race for the 13-times world championship winner – or '12+1'-times winner, as Ángel, out of superstition, used to claim – and Márquez and his fellow riders all agreed that the podium being 100% Spanish today was a fitting tribute to the legendary biker.
Nieto, 70, had been riding a quad in the Santa Gertrudis area of Ibiza, where he had been on holiday – and not far from where he had lived on the island for many years, in Santa Eulària – when he was hit by a car, leaving him in intensive care with serious head injuries and in an induced coma.
He had begun to improve and medics started withdrawing the sedation gradually, pleased with his progress as they did so, but Nieto then suffered a massive cerebral oedema – a build-up of fluid on the brain – and surgery and medication to relieve it did not produce a response.
But the MotoGP hero-turned-commentator for TeleCinco and TVE would have been pleased with the homage paid to him today: Márquez, from Cervera (Lleida province, Catalunya) was joined on the podium by his compatriots Maverick Viñales (Yamaha) and Dani Pedrosa, who is also his Repsol Honda team mate.
Márquez's victory, which he dedicated to Ángel, means he is back at the top of the championship standings and could be on his way to winning his fourth world title in just five seasons at MotoGP level.
The 24-year-old prodigy, who became the youngest-ever rookie to win the world championship in 2013 – a feat he repeated in 2014 and 2016 – now has 32 race victories to his name, beating the USA's legendary Eddie Lawson and earning seventh place in history for GP wins.
He may well catch up with Nieto himself who, with 90 races under his belt, has only ever been beaten by Italians Giacomo Agostini and the still-competing seven-times world champion Valentino Rossi.
Maverick Viñales, a complete outsider until he stunned fans this year by clearing up at the start of the season, is second in the standings on 140 points – 14 fewer than Márquez – whilst Italy's Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Desmosedici) is third on 133, with his compatriot Valentino Rossi only a point behind him in fourth.
A rainy race that nevertheless only caused one fall – Ducati's Álvaro Bautista - kicked off with Mallorca-born three-times world champion Jorge Lorenzo comfortably in the lead, but Márquez's surprise decision to switch to soft tyres long before any of his rivals paid off and he swiftly pulled himself up from fourth position to roar past the checquered flag, raising a thumbs-up to 'heaven' as a signal to Ángel Nieto.
Viñales also gave a spectacular show, storming from seventh position to third, behind Pedrosa.
Lorenzo's fabulous start turned to disappointment as he finished 15th, whilst his fellow Spaniards Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) came in eighth, Pol Espargaró (KTM) ninth, Álex Rins (Suzuki) 11th, Tito Rabat (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) 17th and Héctor Barberá (Ducati) 20th, whilst the latter's team mate Álvaro Bautista crashed out.
Related Topics
HONDA rider Marc Márquez dedicated his win in Brno, Czech Republic today to the late Ángel Nieto, who passed away in hospital this week after a serious road crash.
A minute's silence was held at the start of the MotoGP race for the 13-times world championship winner – or '12+1'-times winner, as Ángel, out of superstition, used to claim – and Márquez and his fellow riders all agreed that the podium being 100% Spanish today was a fitting tribute to the legendary biker.
Nieto, 70, had been riding a quad in the Santa Gertrudis area of Ibiza, where he had been on holiday – and not far from where he had lived on the island for many years, in Santa Eulària – when he was hit by a car, leaving him in intensive care with serious head injuries and in an induced coma.
He had begun to improve and medics started withdrawing the sedation gradually, pleased with his progress as they did so, but Nieto then suffered a massive cerebral oedema – a build-up of fluid on the brain – and surgery and medication to relieve it did not produce a response.
But the MotoGP hero-turned-commentator for TeleCinco and TVE would have been pleased with the homage paid to him today: Márquez, from Cervera (Lleida province, Catalunya) was joined on the podium by his compatriots Maverick Viñales (Yamaha) and Dani Pedrosa, who is also his Repsol Honda team mate.
Márquez's victory, which he dedicated to Ángel, means he is back at the top of the championship standings and could be on his way to winning his fourth world title in just five seasons at MotoGP level.
The 24-year-old prodigy, who became the youngest-ever rookie to win the world championship in 2013 – a feat he repeated in 2014 and 2016 – now has 32 race victories to his name, beating the USA's legendary Eddie Lawson and earning seventh place in history for GP wins.
He may well catch up with Nieto himself who, with 90 races under his belt, has only ever been beaten by Italians Giacomo Agostini and the still-competing seven-times world champion Valentino Rossi.
Maverick Viñales, a complete outsider until he stunned fans this year by clearing up at the start of the season, is second in the standings on 140 points – 14 fewer than Márquez – whilst Italy's Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Desmosedici) is third on 133, with his compatriot Valentino Rossi only a point behind him in fourth.
A rainy race that nevertheless only caused one fall – Ducati's Álvaro Bautista - kicked off with Mallorca-born three-times world champion Jorge Lorenzo comfortably in the lead, but Márquez's surprise decision to switch to soft tyres long before any of his rivals paid off and he swiftly pulled himself up from fourth position to roar past the checquered flag, raising a thumbs-up to 'heaven' as a signal to Ángel Nieto.
Viñales also gave a spectacular show, storming from seventh position to third, behind Pedrosa.
Lorenzo's fabulous start turned to disappointment as he finished 15th, whilst his fellow Spaniards Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) came in eighth, Pol Espargaró (KTM) ninth, Álex Rins (Suzuki) 11th, Tito Rabat (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) 17th and Héctor Barberá (Ducati) 20th, whilst the latter's team mate Álvaro Bautista crashed out.
Related Topics
More News & Information
A HOLLYWOOD legend joining folk-dancers from Asturias and showing off her fancy footwork in the street is not a scene your average Oviedo resident witnesses during his or her weekly shop. Even though their northern...
FOOTBALL fans have plenty of time to plan their trip to Spain for the 2030 FIFA men's World Cup, and almost any destination in the country should be within easy travelling distance of a stadium – a shortlist of 15...
NOW into its seventh stage and a new calendar month, Spain's version of the Tour de France concludes its only incursion into coastal towns on Sunday,