2013 MotoGP World Championship
The 2013 FIM MotoGP World Championship was the premier class of the 65th F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season.
Season summary
started the season as the defending World Champion, while Honda was the defending Manufacturers' Champion. Moto2 champion Marc Márquez joined the MotoGP grid with Repsol Honda.In the premier MotoGP class, Lorenzo, along with Repsol Honda teammates Marc Márquez and Dani Pedrosa battled it out for most of the season in regards to the championship battle. Lorenzo won the opening race of the season in Qatar, before rookie Márquez became the youngest premier class winner, as he claimed victory in the inaugural Grand Prix of the Americas in Texas. Pedrosa took back-to-back victories at Jerez – where Márquez and Lorenzo battled for second place, clashing at the final corner – and Le Mans, before Lorenzo did likewise at Mugello, and Catalunya; at the former, Márquez retired from the race after crashing out of second place. At Assen, Lorenzo crashed during free practice and fractured his collarbone, and after emergency surgery and initial reports that he would not take part for the rest of the weekend, he competed in the race and finished fifth. Márquez and Pedrosa finished second and fourth respectively, as Valentino Rossi took his first race victory since. Márquez then won the next four races, starting at the Sachsenring, where both Lorenzo and Pedrosa were sidelined with injuries; Lorenzo with a recurrence of his Assen injury after crashing in free practice once again, while Pedrosa was ruled out with low blood pressure, stemming from a separate incident.
After two more victories for Lorenzo at Silverstone, and Misano, Márquez and Pedrosa collided at the Aragon Grand Prix, where a slight touch caused a sensor on Pedrosa's bike to tear and cut the traction control system. Márquez went on to beat Lorenzo to victory, and after Pedrosa won in Malaysia, Márquez held a 43-point lead in the championship with three races to go. However, a disqualification in Australia, as well as Lorenzo winning both in Australia and Japan reduced that margin to thirteen, ahead of the final race in Valencia; the first final race title decider since. After battling Pedrosa and Lorenzo in the early stages of the race, Márquez finished third in the race to become the youngest premier class champion, beating Freddie Spencer's record from. As well as this, Márquez became the first rookie since Kenny Roberts in to win the championship in their début season, and only the fourth rider to win world championships in three different categories after Mike Hailwood, Phil Read and Rossi. Pedrosa's second place, behind Lorenzo, was enough for Honda to clinch the constructors' championship.
Regulation changes
The MotoGP class saw the introduction of a new qualifying system, in which the riders placed eleventh or lower based on times in Free Practice 3 were sent to Qualifying 1. The two fastest riders from that session would then join the ten fastest riders in Qualifying 2 to set the first 12 positions of the starting grid.Calendar
The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme released a 19-race provisional calendar on 19 September 2012. On 23 November 2012, the calendar was updated following confirmation that the return of the Argentine Grand Prix would be postponed to 2014. The Grand Prix of the Americas held at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, United States, replaced the Portuguese Grand Prix, which had been run at Estoril since 2000. The United States hosted three races, the other two being the United States Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the Indianapolis Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.The following Grands Prix took place in 2013:
| Round | Date | Grand Prix | Circuit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 7 April ‡ |  Calendar changes
Team changes
Grands PrixRiders' standings;Scoring systemPoints were awarded to the top fifteen finishers. A rider had to finish the race to earn points.
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